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THE 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER 



A COLLECTION OP 



ADDRESSES AND DIALOGUES 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS. 



EDITED BY D. P. KIDDER. 



NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY G. LANE & C. B. TIPPETT, 

FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 

J, Collord, Printer. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 
G. Lane & C. B. Tippett, in the Clerk's Office of the District 
Court of the Southern District of New-York. 



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PREFACE. 



At certain seasons of the year frequent in- 
quiries are made for dialogues, addresses, 
HYMNS, &c., suitable to be used at Sunday- 
school anniversaries. No little embarrassment 
sometimes arises to those who desire to procure, 
as well as to those who are requested to furnish 
them at a short notice. Sometimes quite indif- 
ferent and unsuitable productions are used on 
such occasions, for the lack of better. One of 
our books, called the Sunday- School Orator, 
vas prepared in view of this state of things, 
and has done excellent service. 

But as that has been in use several years, 
>ther and larger volume of a similar character 
s been repeatedly and urgently called for. 
As an humble response to this call, the present 
volume is submitted to the public. It claims to 
be nothing more than a compilation of the best 
materials within our reach. A number of the 
pieces inserted are taken from an English work 
of the same title. Others are of American origin, 
but anonymous. Whenever the name of an 



PREFACE. 



author has been known, it has been indicated by 
initials at the end of his piece. 

While the contents of this unpretending vo- 
lume exhibit a great variety, it is believed they 
will be found not only unexceptionable, but 
decidedly good in their tendency. Articles 
distinguished for plainness and simplicity in 
style have, in all cases, been preferred to pieces 
above the capacities and unadapted to the feel- 
ings of children. 

We are fully sensible that great evils fre- 
quently grow out of Sunday-school exhibitions, 
when they are not conducted with proper care 
and discretion. The same thing may be said 
of Sunday schools themselves. But who would 
discard Sunday schools wholly, on that account? 

Without entering into a long discussion of the 
subject, we have no hesitation in declaring our 
opinion, notwithstanding the theories of some, 
in favor of public Sunday-school anniversaries, 
when rightly conducted. 

We have, in not a few cases, known them to 
awaken new interest in behalf of the school, 
both among the scholars and their friends, and 
also among those who were before strangers 
to their operations. It is, perhaps, not too much 
to say, that the constitution of the human mind 
requires an occasional excitement toward good 



PREFACE. 5 

objects. The unvarying routine of Sunday- 
school instruction often becomes wearisome to 
children, and they need to be aroused by some 
special efforts. Parents, too, are prone to forget 
their obligations to this most useful institution, 
and some extra movements in its behalf are 
beneficial to them. A wisely-planned and well- 
conducted Sunday-school anniversary may, in 
many cases, answer both ends. 

While we say this, we wish also distinctly to 
say, that all attempts at theatrical display on 
these occasions should be strictly avoided ; and 
also whatever is calculated to excite vanity in 
either old or young. The exercises, moreover, 
should be, as fully as practicable, an exhibition 
of the actual workings of the school. Select 
hymns and catechetical recitations are always 
appropriate. Besides these, suitable addresses 
and dialogues are useful in giving variety and 
interest to the occasion. Owing to the recent 
publication of our Infant Teacher's Manual, 
which abounds in new and appropriate recita- 
tions for infant classes, we have not multiplied 
that class of pieces in this volume. There is 
still another style of exercises which we can 
most cordially recommend. It may be denomi- 
nated Scriptural recitation. As an example, we 
here indicate a short lesson on the prophecies 



PREFACE. 



respecting Christ. Any person can readily copy 
out the passages. In recitation, let there be an 
equal number of males and females. Let the 
boys, for example, recite the prophecies, and 
the girls severally respond with the fulfillment. 
Thus the scholars, knowing their proper num- 
bers, can exhibit the most perfect order and 
promptness. 



Prophecy, Gen. iii, 15. 
Fulfillment, 1 John iii, 8. 

No. 3. 
P., Psa. kxii, 17. 
F., Luke ii, 10, 11. 

No. 5. 
P., Gen. xviii, 17, 18. 
F., Acts iii, 20, 22, 26. 

No. 7. 
P., Isa. xi, 1-10. 
F., Matt. 1,1 ; Rom.xv, 12. 

No. 9. 
P., Jeremiah xxiii, 5, 6. 
F., Acts ii, 29, 30 ; Luke 
i, 32, 33. 
No. 11. 
P., Mic. V, 2. 
F., Luke ii, 4, 6. 



No. 2. 
Prophecy, Gen. xxii, 15-18. 
Fulfillment, Heb. ii, 16. 

No. 4. 
P., Hag. ii, 7, 9. 
F., Luke ii, 25-30. 

iVb. 6. 
P., Gen. xlix, 10. 
F., Heb. vii, 14. 

No.S. 
P., Psa. Ixxxix, 3, 4, 27. 
F., John vii, 42. 

No. 10. 
P., Isaiah vii, 14. 
F., Matt, i, 22, 23. 

No. 12. 

P., Malachi iii, 1. 
F., Matt, iii, 1, 2. 



The first piece in this book, entitled " Cre- 
ation," may be considered as another specmen 



PREFACE. 7 

of this style of exercises. Some of their mani- 
fest advantages may be enumerated. 

1. The lessons may be easily provided. By 
aid of a reference Bible a person can readily 
prepare similar lessons on a great variety of 
subjects. The Theological Compend, No. 223 
of our Sunday School and Youth's Library, will 
be found very serviceable in suggesting and 
aiding the preparation of such lessons. 

2. Any number of children may be furnished 
with parts for recitation, and it is always desirable 
to have as large a portion of the school as prac- 
ticable brought forward on these occasions. 

3. All the objections to dialogues — founded 
on their scarcity, their inappropriateness, their 
length, or their limited number of parts — are 
obviated. 

4. The impressions given to the audience, 
and to the minds of those who commit the les- 
sons, cannot fail to be good. 

We have no doubt that many who may con- 
sult this work, will think they have either heard 
or composed better pieces than some of these ; 
which they would have been glad to see inserted 
here. 

We remark, that contributions were publicly 
solicited for this object some months since, and 



8 PREFACE. 

that the best use has been made of those for- 
warded to us. In conclusion we would add, 
that we shall still be pleased to receive original 
pieces adapted to such a work, promising to put 
them on file as candidates for insertion in the 
next volume of a similar character which shall 
be called for. 

New-York, December, 1845. 



CONTENTS. 



The Creation, 11 

Lines to be recited by a Child who has lost a 

Brother and a Sister, 21 

A Dialogue on Fruits, between A., B., and C, -- 22 

A Child's Evening Thoughts, 28 

The New Heart — A Dialogue between two Chil- 
dren, 30 

. iPoetic Dialogue, between a Brother and Sister, in 

returning from Sunday School, 35 

The News— A Dialogue, 39 

Christ at the Well of Samaria, 42 

A Poetic Dialogue on Prayer, 43 

How to shorten the Day — A Dialogue, 45 

What is Heaven ? — A Dialogue for two Children, 48 

Enigma from Scripture, 49 

Reading the Bible — A Dialogue, 50 

The Good Physician, 54 

Answer to the Enigma from Scripture, 58 

The Nautilus — A Conversation, 58 

Emma and Lucy — A Poetic Conversation, 63 

Joseph before Pharaoh — A Dialogue, 65 

Hymn— The Star of Bethlehem, 70 

How to behave in the House of God, 70 

Hymn for an Infant Class, 76 

Hymn for Christmas, 76 

Christmas Dialogue, held by seven Children, 77 

Hymn for Teachers and Children, 85 

Scriptural Dialogue for a Class of Scholars, .. .^, . 86 



10 CONTENTS. 

Page 

Hymn for an Anniversary, 100 

Dialogue on Missions, , 101 

Hymn— The Word of God, 106 

Address — Philanthropy, 107 

The Song of Men and Angels, 112 

Dialogue on Sunday Schools, 113 

Children's Hymn, 118 

Sunday-School Celebrations — A Dialogue, 119 

The Bible, 123 

Dialogue on Sunday Schools, 124 

Hymn — Sabbath Morning, 127 

Dialogue on Temperance, 128 

Hymn— Christmas Celebration, 133 

Dancing — A Conversation, 134 

Star in the East — A Poetic Dialogue, 139 

Happy Christmas, 142 

New-Year's Day, 145 

Bible-Class Exercise, 146 

A Dialogue about Jesus, for Infant Scholars, 153 

Sunday Visiting — A Conversation, 154 

Teachers' Hymn, 161 

A Speech in Verse, ., 162 

Voyage of Life, 163 

^^ Bright Little Star," 164 

Robert Raikes — A Tribute to his Memory, 165 

AHymn, 166 

Parting Hymn, 167 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 



CREATION. 

Genesis i, 1 to 5. In the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth. And the 
earth was without form, and void ; and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep : and the Spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters. 

And God said, Let there be light : and there 
was light. And God saw the light, that it was 
good : and God divided the light from the dark- 
ness. And God called the light Day, and the 
darkness he called Night. And the evening 
and the morning were the first day. 

Parallel passage, John i, 1 to 5. In the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God. All things 
were made by him ; and without him was not 
anything made that was made. In him was 
life ; and the life was the light of men. And 
the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness 
comprehended it not. 



12 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

This globe and yon heaven so fair, bright, and blue, 

A crystaline arch ever lovely to view ; 

The ambient ether, and light's radiation, 

Were made by the Word, on the first day's creation. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stars sing the birth time of na- 
ture. 
Ye sons of God praise the eternal Creator. 

Gen. i, 6 to 8. And God said, Let there be 
a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let 
it divide the waters from the waters. And God 
made the firmament, and divided the waters 
which were under the firmament from the waters 
which were above the firmament : and it was 
so. And God called the firmament Heaven. 
And the evening and the morning were the 
second day. 

Parallel passage. Psalm civ, 1 to 3. Bless 
the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou 
art very great ; thou art clothed with honor and 
majesty: who coverest thyself with light as 
with a garment ; who stretchest out the hea- 
vens like a curtain ; who layeth the beams of 
his chambers in the waters ; who maketh the 
clouds his chariot ; who walketh upon the wings 
of the wind. 

Yon azure expanse where the bright planets roll, 
A canopy spreading to each distant pole ; 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 13 

A vast viewless region, a firmament reckoned, 
To sever the v^raters, His wisdom made second. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stars, &c. 

Gen. i, 9 to 13. And God said. Let the wa- 
ters under the heaven be gathered together unto 
one place, and let the dry land appear : and it 
was so. And God called the dry land Earth ; 
and the gathering together of the waters called 
he Seas : and God saw that it was good. And 
God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the 
herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding 
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon 
the earth : and it was so. And the earth brought 
forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his 
kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed 
was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that 
it was good. And the evening and the morn- 
ing were the third day. 

Parallel passage. Psalm civ, 5 to 14. Who 
laid the foundations of the earth, that it should 
not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it 
with the deep as with a garment : the waters 
stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they 
fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted 
away. They go up by the mountains ; they go 
down by the valleys unto the place which thou 
hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound 



14 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

that they may not pass over ; that they turn not 
again to cover the earth. He sendeth the 
springs into the valleys, which run among the 
hills. They give drink to every beast of the 
field : the wild asses quench their thirst. By 
them shall the fowls of the heaven have their 
habitation, which sing among the branches. 
He watereth the hills from his chambers ; the 
earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. 
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and 
herb for the service of man : that he may bring 
forth food out of the earth. 

The waters divided, the dry land was seen, 
First barren and sightless, soon lovely and green ; 
For grass, herbs, and fruits, bearing seed of its kind, 
The third day's creation Jehovah design'd. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stars sing, &c. 

Gen. i, 14 to 19. And God said, Let there 
be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide 
the day from the night ; and let them be for 
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years ; 
and let them be for lights in the firmament of 
the heaven, to give light upon the earth : and it 
was so. And God made two great lights ; the 
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light 
to rule the night : he made the stars also. And 
God set them in the firmament of the heaven, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 15 

to give light upon the earth. And to rule over 
the day and over the night, and to divide the 
light from the darkness : and God saw that it 
was good. And the evening and the morning 
were the fourth day. 

Parallel passage. Psalm xix, 1 to 6. The 
heavens declare the glory of God ; and the fir- 
mament showeth his handy work. Day unto 
day uttereth speech, and night unto night show- 
eth knowledge. There is no speech nor lan- 
guage where their voice is not heard. Their 
line is gone out through all the earth, and their 
words to the end of the world. In them hath 
he set a tabernacle for the sun ; which is as a 
bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and re- 
joiceth as a strong man to run a race. His 
going forth is from the end of the heaven, and 
his circuit unto the ends of it : and there is no- 
thing hid from the heat thereof. 

The sun, moon, and stars, all yon glittering spheres, 
For signs, and for seasons, for days, months, and years; 
To rule day and night, with reciprocal sway, 
Was Elohim's work on creation's fourth day. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stars sing, &c. 

Gen. i, 20 to 23. And God said, Let the 
waters bring forth abundantly the moving crea- 
ture that hath life, and fowl that may fly above 



16 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And 
God created great whales, and every living 
creature that moveth, which the waters brought 
forth abundantly, after their kind, and every 
winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it 
was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be 
fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the 
seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And 
the evening and the morning were the fifth 
day. 

Parallel passage. Psalm civ, 24 to 31. O 
Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom 
hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy 
riches ; so is this great and wide sea, wherein 
are things creeping innumerable, both small and 
great beasts. There go the ships ; there is that 
leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. 
These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give 
them their meat in due season. That thou givest 
them they gather : thou openest thy hand, they 
are filled with good : thou hidest thy face, they 
are troubled: thou takest away their breath, 
they die, and return to their dust. Thou send- 
est forth thy spirit, they are created ; and thou 
renewest the face of the earth. The glory of 
the Lord shall endure for ever : the Lord shall 
rejoice in his works. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 17 

The feathery tenants of meadows and woods, 
With fish all prolific in ocean's green floods ; 
Whate'er loves the stream, or delights in the air, 
The fifth day's creation made perfect and clear. 

Chorus. — ^Ye morning stars sing, &c. 

Gen. i, 24 to 31. And God said, Let the 
earth bring forth the living creature after his 
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the 
earth after his kind : and it was so. And God 
made the beast of the earth after his kind, and 
cattle after their kind, and everything that creep- 
eth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw 
that it was good. 

And God said, Let us make man in our own 
image, after our own likeness ; and let them 
have dominion over the fiish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over 
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 
creepeth upon the earth. So God created man 
in his own image : in the image of God created 
he him ; male and female created he them. 
And God blessed them : and God said unto 
them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon 
the earth. 



2 



18 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

And God said, Behold, I have given you 
every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face 
of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is 
the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall 
be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, 
and to every fowl of the air, and to everything 
that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is 
life, I have given every green herb for meat : 
and it was so. And God saw everything that 
he had made, and, behold, it was very good. 
And the evening and the morning were the sixth 
day. 

Parallel passage. Psalm viii. O Lord our 
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! 
who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out 
of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou 
ordained strength, because of thine enemies, that 
thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy 
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast 
ordained ; what is man, that thou art mindful of 
him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
For thou hast made him a little lower than the 
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 
honor. ThCyU madest him to have dominion 
over the wc.rk/^ of thy hands ; thou hast put all 
things und jy fiis feet ; all sheep and oxen, yea, 
and the b^^jtsts of the field ; the fowl of the air, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 19 

and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth 
through the paths of the seas. O Lord our 
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the 
earth ! 

The ravenous beasts, and the animals tame, 
With reptiles and insects of every name, 
The sixth day brought forth, and to finish the plan, 
Jehovah created his favorite, mari. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stai's sing, &c. 

How countless the glories the earth that adorn, 

The treasures that teem in her womb ; 
The meadow^s anointed with dews of the mom. 
And gilded the hills with the ripeness of corn, 
And cloud-crested groves of perfume. 

How distant the shores that encompass the sea ! 

Its navies, how splendid they are ! 
Or couch'd on its bosom in lordly array. 
Or dauntlessly ploughing their furrowless way. 

To wealthier regions afar. 

Who lent to the landscape such grandeur and grace ? 

Who built the deep arch of the sky ? 
And launch'd yonder orbs into infinite space. 
And kindled their lamps, and appointed their place, 

Who waken'd creation, and why ? 

His name is Jehovah, — he governs the whole. 

And measures its breadth with a span ; 
The lights that alternately spangle the pole. 
The verdure that lives, and the waters that roll. 
Are his, — and he made them for man. 



20 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

For thousands of gifts from his bounty that flow'd, 

He asks of his creature but one ; 
He asks but the heart that himself has bestowed,— 
But deafen'd is man to the voice of his God, 

And robs the Most High of his own. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stars sing, &c. 

Psalm cxlviii. Praise ye the Lord. Praise 
ye the Lord from the heavens : praise him in 
the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels : 
praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, 
sun and moon : praise him, all ye stars of light. 
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye 
waters that be above the heavens. Let them 
praise the name of the Lord : for he command- 
ed, and they were created. He hath also esta- 
blished them for ever and ever : he hath made 
a decree vrhich shall not pass. Praise the Lord 
from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps : fire 
and hail ; snow and vapour ; stormy wind ful- 
filling his word : mountains, and all hills ; fruit- 
ful trees, and cedars : beasts, and all cattle ; 
creeping things, and flying fowl : kings of the 
earth, and all people ; princes, and all judges of 
the earth : both young men and maidens ; old 
men and children : let them praise the name of 
the Lord ; for his name alone is excellent : his 
glory is above the earth and heaven. He also 
exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 21 

his saints ; even of the children of Israel, a peo- 
ple near unto him. Praise ye the Lord. 

Chorus. — Ye morning stars sing, &c. 



LINES 

To he recited hy a Child who has lost a Brother and a 

Sister, 

Farewell my brother Thomas ! 

Yet wherefore should I weep ? 
Though he be vanish'd from us, 

In death's cold arms to sleep. 

From pain and tears to save him ; 

From bonds of sin and clay ; 
The Lord, the Lord who gave him, 

Hath taken him away. 

By God's free grace forgiven. 

His servitude is o'er — 
Our Thomas is in heaven, 

And lives for evermore ! 

Farewell, my angel sister ! 

Ah ! little did I fear. 
How soon, when last I kiss'd her, 

She'd leave me lonely here. 

Rejoice that death has taken 

Our sister from her pain ; 
She from her sleep shall waken. 

But not to toil again. 



22 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

The grave her bondage closes ; 

Poor Mary Anil's at rest ! 
The weary lamb reposes • 

Upon the shepherd's breast 

Dear Saviour I meek and lowly, 
Affliction makes me bold ; 

I'm vile, — ^but thou art holy ; 
O ! take me to thy fold. 

My playmates have departed, 
To better climes above ; 

And I am broken-hearted, 
And pining for their love. 

Kind God of the oppressed, 
Whose death hath set us free ; 

O ! in their home so blessed 
Let there be room for me. 



A DIALOGUE ON FRUIT, 

BETWEEN A., B., AND C. 

C What good lesson can we learn from 
these grapes and oranges ? 

A, If you think of them rightly, they will 
show you how good God is, and how faithful 
to his purpose and word. 

C. Well, but you must show us how it 
is so. 

A, I think I can do so in several ways. 
First of all, tell me what these grapes and 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 23 

oranges are. Your father did not make them 
for you. 

C, To be sure not : he bought them. They 
grew. They are fruit. 

A, Well, but what is the particular use of 
fruit? 

B. Why, are not fruits to be eaten ? 

A, Some are, but not all. But that is not 
their whole use. The fruit is that which comes 
after the flower, and contains the seeds out of 
which other plants of the same kind would 
grow. If the fruit were to stop long enough^ 
the seed would become ripe, and quite ready for 
use. There is seed in apples, seed in grapes, 
seed in oranges, seed in gooseberries, straw- 
berries, and currants, seed in cherries, peaches, 
and plums. 

B, But do all seeds grow in fruit ? 

A. No ; the Creator of all things shows that 
he can accomplish the same objects in various 
ways. Sometimes the seeds are in a pod ; and 
some of them, when they are young, are very 
nice eating, though we do not call them fruit. 

B, O, you mean such as peas, 

A. I do. But some come just as the flower 
falls to pieces ; as if they were fastened to the 
end of a little feather, to be blown away with 
the wind. 



24 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

B, Why, are those little things that we blow 
oflF the dandelions, when we try to find out what 
o'clock it is, by seeing with how many piifFs we 
can send them all away, the seeds ? 

A, Yes, they are ; and there are many other 
ways in which the seed comes. And this shows 
that it was all the appointment of God. As we 
sometimes say, He was not tied down to any one 
particular method, but could accomplish his 
object in several. 

C. And what has this to do with our grapes 
and oranges ? 

A. Could you eat the dandelion-seed? 

C. No, indeed. 

A. But do you like the grapes and oranges? 

JB. Like them ? Who does not ? 

A, Not many, I dare say. Well, then, now 
tell me about the use of these grapes and oranges. 

C. O, we see where you are. They are 
useful because they are seed, and they are use- 
ful for eating. 

A, Yes ; and the dandelion proves that seed 
could have been produced that should not have 
been fit to eat at all : but here you have what 
is good for eating, as well as useful for seed. 
Is not God good who has prepared what is so 
pleasant to you 1 

C. Yes, he is indeed. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 25 

A, Let us go a little further still. Where 
have you the power of tastiug ? 

B. In the mouth. 

A, And God gave the mouth, and gave it 
the power of perceiving and relishing certain 
flavors. Do you like acorns ? 

B» No ; they are too bitter. 

A, But are grapes bitter ? 

jB. No ; they have a very pleasant sweet taste. 

A, What is bread made of? 

B, Flour, and that comes from wheat. 
A. And does wheat taste like grapes ? 
JS. No ; it has not much taste at all. 

A. And yet it is very nourishing. 

B. That it is. 

A, Well, then, see how good God is. He 
needed not to make anything particularly plea- 
sant to the taste : it might be nourishing without 
that. All the pleasantness is therefore omr 
and above what was necessary. God would 
not only give what might keep us alive, but 
what should be gratifying to us. Is not that 
goodness 1 

B. Yes, -A. ; it is, indeed. 

A. But I have two steps more to take. Here 
is the first : Do the grapes and oranges taste 
alike ? or either of them like gooseberries, straw- 
berries, peaches, plums, or cherries ? 



26 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITElt. 

JB. They are all very diiFerent. Not one of 
them is like another. 

A. And yet I think you like them all. 

B. They are all of them very nice. 

A, Yes ; and thus God shows his goodness 
to his creatures, not only by adding pleasantness 
to nourishment, but by causing such a great 
variety to exist among these flavors that are 
chiefly, if not entirely, designed for our grati- 
fication. He has given us the power of per- 
ceiving different flavors, and relishing them; 
and he meets this power by the different flavors 
which exist in different substances. It is still 
the goodness of God. But now for the other 
step. You have grapes and oranges. Why 
have you not brought gooseberries, and straw- 
berries, and cherries ? 

B. Why, A., you know the reason very well. 
They are not come yet : it is not the season 
for them. 

A, Where did you get the grapes and oranges ? 

B. Father bought them for us. 

A, But where did they come from? It is 
not time for them, any more than for the others. 

jB. The oranges came from the West Indies, 
and the grapes were ticketed in the shop-window 
as being from Sicily. 

A. Some time or other we will talk about 



StJNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 27 

the growing of both of them. The fruits were 
gathered a little before they were perfectly ripe. 
Both were properly packed up, and sent to this 
country. But God, who has not appointed fruit 
to grow all the year, has appointed that we may 
have it all the year. In summer, as one sort 
goes, another comes ; cherries, strawberries, 
blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, whortle- 
berries, plums, &c., succeed each other in 
regular order. Then come the apples, and they 
will keep through the winter. And in other 
countries, grapes and oranges become fully ripe 
after they are packed up ; and when we get 
them, become our winter fruit, just lasting till 
our own fruit begins to grow. By the time that 
you find gooseberries to be plentiful, oranges 
you will find to be scarce. And thus God has 
arranged matters with such wisdom and good- 
ness, that you have a most pleasant variety of 
fruit throughout the year, winter and summer. 
And all for the pleasure of man. The Lord is 
good, and his mercy endureth for ever. But I 
must not make my sermon on these grapes and 
oranges too long. Think of this, that all things 
go on with such wonderful regularity. One 
year is like another. We know how the sea- 
sons change ; we know when the different trees 
and plants will put forth their leaves, their bios- 



28 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

soms, their fruits. Everything shows that our 
heavenly Father is not changeable. He said to 
Noah, many, many years ago, " While the earth 
remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and 
heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, 
shall not cease." And they never have ceased 
from that day to this. He also has said, " I 
love them that love me, and they that seek me 
early shall find me :" and, " Acknowledge him 
in all thy ways, and he shall direct thy paths." 
And as certainly as we see that in what we call 
the kingdom of nature — and this is God's king- 
dom — everything is fixed ; so also in the king- 
dom of his grace. Thus, even your grapes and 
oranges have brought us to see with the Psalm- 
ist, " For the Lord is good ; his mercy is 
everlasting ; and his truth endureth to all gene- 
rations." 

A CHILD'S EVENING THOUGHTS. 

All the little flowers I see, 

Their tiny eyes are closing ; 
The birds are roosting on the tree, 

The lambkiQS are reposing. 

The sun, where that dull streak of red 

Is faintly glimmering still, 
They say, has gone to seek his bed. 

Behind the purple hill. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 29 

And I, through all the quiet night. 

Must sleep the hours away, 
That I may waken fresh and bright, 

To live another day. 

And well I know whose lips will smile, 

And pray for me, and bless me ; 
And who will talk to me the while 

Her gentle hands undress me. 

She'll tell me, there is One above. 

Upon a glorious throne. 
Who loves me with a tender love, 

More tender than her own. 

He made the sun, and stars, and skies, 

The pretty shrubs and flowers, 
And all the birds and butterflies 

That flutter through the bowers. 

He keeps them underneath his wings. 

And there they safely rest; 
Yet, though they're bright and lovely things, 

He loves us far the best. 

For when bii'ds and flowers are dead. 

Their little life is past ; 
But though we die, yet he has said. 

Our life shall always last. 

And we shall live with him in heaven ; 

For he has sent his Son 
To die, that we may be forgiven 

The sins that we have done. 



30 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

He'll make my heart grow like his own, 

All loving, good, and mild ; 
For he will send his Spirit down, 

And take me for his child. 

Then happily I'll lie and sleep 

Within my little nest ; 
For well I know that he will keep 

His children while they rest. E. S. R. A. 



THE NEW HEART. 

Frances. My dear Mary Ann, I have attended 
to your kind advice in reading my Bible, and I 
find several places speak of having a new heart; 
and as you said you v^ould explain anything, 
may I ask you the reason of that 1 

Mary Ann. I am very happy to hear you ask 
such a question, because it proves that you at- 
tend to your Bible ; it is of very little use to 
read it without ; we ought indeed to pray over 
it, because none can understand what they read 
unless the Spirit of God (which is called the 
Holy Spirit) applies it to the heart. Our hearts 
by nature are, in Scripture, repeatedly compared 
to stone, which can have no feeling, as it re- 
spects divine things, till softened by the power 
of God ; then it is that the new heart, as it is 
called by a figure of speech, is given unto us. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 31 

F. I recollect the verse, " A new heart will 
I give you, and I will put a right spirit within 
you ;" that is what you mean. 

M. A, Yes, my dear ; our gracious God is 
willing to give whatever we ask for through 
faith in Christ Jesus. That " new heart" which 
he promises is an entire change of disposition, 
or being born again, as our Lord said to Nico- 
demus, and without which we can never enter 
the kingdom of heaven. It is a heart suscep- 
tible of his love ; a heart that has fresh desires 
and new inclinations ; and this he will give, if 
we go humbly to his throne of grace and ask 
him for it; for he has said. Ask, and ye shall 
receive ; and if we obtain this new heart, it 
must be through Christ, who died for sinners ; 
and we shall also receive a right spirit with it, 
which is the Spirit of God. And is not all 
this worth asking for ? 

F, But have we not at present feeling hearts ? 
What kind of a heart is it that we now possess ? 

M, A. Our hearts and inclinations by nature 
are full of sin, till God in his great mercy 
changes them : you know that we are all bom 
in sin, so that by nature we are very far from 
God ; we do not desire him, he is not naturally 
in all our thoughts, we love to think of other 
things and not of God, which is a breach of the 



32 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

first commandment, and clearly proves that our 
hearts are not right in the sight of him with 
whom we have to do. 

F. If I should very much wish to have a new 
heart, tell me how I could obtain it. 

M. A. I have done that already. If you 
were anxious to obtain anything from kind 
parents, what method would you pursue ? 

F. I would ask for it. 

M. A, But if they refused your petition, and 
it was anything that you had a great desire for, 
and which you knew it was in their power to 
give, what would you do then ? 

F. O then I would plead most earnestly for 
it ; I would entreat them with all my power, till 
I had, if possible, prevailed, and gained from 
them the thing that I so much desired. 

M. A. Now, my dear, I can answer your 
question. What is there that an earthly parent 
can bestow, compared with a new heart ? And 
if you would plead so much for any earthly 
gratification, how much more ought you to plead 
with God for his promised blessing? Is not 
this worth asking for ? 

F. Does a new heart include every blessing ? 

M. A. My dear girl, a new heart includes 
every Blessing from God, because we must love 
him if we have a new heart, and then it will be 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 33 

our constant desire to please him ; and if you 
know when you desire to please any one, you 
may know when it is your desire to please God ; 
and if you ask sincerely for a new heart, and 
his grace, and his blessing, I doubt not but you 
will receive them : you must be convinced that 
you are a sinner, and be very earnest in your 
supplications at a throne of grace. 

F. Permit me, then, to ask if I shall receive 
those " blessings as a reward ?" 

M. A. Can a sinful worm do anything that 
will merit reward in the sight of God ? O no, 
my dear, it will be by the grace of God alone 
if our hearts be ever renewed ; we cannot dp 
the least thing that will merit his favor. As 
sinners we are very displeasing in his sight, 
but if we obtain his pardon and a new heart, we 
shall think it our highest honor and greatest 
privilege to do his will. 

F, Well, but if I try to be very good in acts 
of kindness, and attend strictly at a place of 
worship and to the word of God, shall I not by 
those means obtain his favor ? 

M. A. Do you not recollect the Pharisee? 
Such was his character ; such persons deceive 
jtheir own souls under a cloak of religion : recol- 
lect the word of God says, " There is none that 
doeth good, no, not one ;" then, where i« our 
3 



34 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

goodness to come from bat from God, who alone 
is the giver of every good and perfect gift? 
When we worthless sinners approach the throne 
of grace, we ought to use the publican's petition, 
and cry, " God be merciful to me a sinner," 
and constantly pray for true repentance and his 
grace to do the will of our heavenly Father. 

** O to grace how great a debtor 
Daily I'm consti'ain'd to be ! 
Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, 
Bind my wandering heart to thee." 

F. My dear sister, I shall follow your instruc- 
tions ; and though we must be separated for a 
time, yet I hope I shall be able to go to a throne 
of grace and answer to the command, " Give 
me thine heart ;" and the answer I wish to 
make is, '' Yes, Lord, my heart will I give 
thee." 

M. A. It affords me inexpressible pleasure 
to hear you say so. May you have strength to 
perform your resolution, and bear in mind the 
words of the Psalmist : " Wait on the Lord, be 
of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy 
heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." 

" Prayer from an humble sinner's heart, 
When raised to Christ above. 
Will be received, and he'll impart 
The blessinofs of his love," 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 35 

F. I am sorry we cannot have a little more 
conversation on the subject now, but when we 
meet again I hope we shall. 

M, A. In the mean time, if you study your 
Bible in a praying spirit, you will find other 
questions of importance to ask me ; and I as- 
sure you, my love, it would greatly increase my 
happiness should our conversation be made the 
means of leading you to the Saviour, through 
whose atoning blood alone we can be saved, 
and through whom we must approach the Father 
in all our supplications. 



POETIC DIALOGUE 

Between a Brother and Sister in returning from 
Sunday School. 

Mary. Come, Henry, let us talk about 

What we have heard to-day ; 
Henry. O no, I'd rather, now I'm out, 

Run in the fields to play. 

M. What ! play on Sundays, Heniy, fie ; 

O fie, that's sabbath-breakmg : 
H. Well, so wiU you, too, by and by, 

So I don't mind your speaking. 

M. I \\4sh you did then, for I see 
'Tis yeiy, veiy wrong ; 



36 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

H. Come, youVe not going to preach to mc, 
So you may hold your tongue. 

M. But, Henry, after weVe been taught 

To read, and sing, and pray, 
I'm sure in gratitude we ought 

To keep the sabbath day. 

H. Why, Where's the harm ? you used to go 
And play as much as me. 

M. I did ; — -but then I did not know— 

H. Know what ? — O ! I can see, 

Our Mary is a Methodist, 
Converted, I suppose. 

M. O, Henry, though you laugh at this, 
I only wish I was. 

H. But do you really mean it ? what ? 

My sister wish to be 
One of that melancholy set 

*' In the society." 

M. I think you're in a great mistake, 

They are not melancholy ; 
The only pleasures they forsake 

Are those of sin and folly : 
And sure they're happiest who know 

And feel their sins forgiven ; 
And when they die, they hope to go 

And dwell with Christ in heaven. 

H. Well, as to that — the going to heaven, 

They hope, and so do I ; 
But how can they tell they're forgiven 

Their sins before they die? 



SUNDAY fciCHOOL RECITER. 37 

M. How this is known I cannot tell, 

And yet I hope to feel it ; 
I now a wounded conscience feel, 

And this alone can heal it. 

H. But tell me, Mary, what has made 
So great a change in you ? 

M. 'Tis something which my teacher said, 

And O ! I feel 'tis true ; 
She told me of my sins, and said, 

" If I was not forgiven, 
God might that moment strike me dead, 

And shut me out of heaven:" 
I trembled, and I felt that I 

Deserved to go to hell ; 
And O ! if in my sins I die, 

I must in torments dwell, 
In quenchless flames ; — O ! awful thought ! 

To be released never, 
To feel the worm that dieth not 

For ever and for ever. 

i/. But there are many worse than you, 

And God is very kind ; 
And many worse than I am too, 

So sure you need not mind. 

M. I am not sure of that, for see, 

That does not mend the matter, 
For others being worse than me, 

WiU not make me the better ; 
Two blacks can never make one white, 

Nor twenty bring it nearer ; 
If they are wrong, I am not right 

Than this there's nothing clearer : 



38 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

And so I hope I shall begin 
To seek and serve the Lord, 

To ask forgiveness for my sin, 
And grace to keep his word. 

H. But why begm so soon as this ? 
'Tis time enough as yet : 

M. Because delays are dangerous. 

It soon may be too late ; 
We're not too yomig to die, and death 

May come this very day. 
And in a moment stop my breath, 

And hurry me away ; 
And if I should be unprepared. 

There is no help, but go 
I must, to reap my sad reward 

Of everlasting wo. 

H. O dear ! it makes me tremble so, 

Mary, I see you're right. 
And if I could but pray like you, 

I would begin to-night. 

M. Do, my dear brother, surely now 

Is the accepted day, 
Now, Jesus is inviting you, — 

He'll teach you how to pray, 
And O how happy we shall be, 

When we can pray together ; 
I'll pray for you, and you for me, 

And so we'll help each other. 
Come, brother, will you promise ? 

H. yes, 

Through grace I'll now begin, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 39 

And pray till Jesus deigns to bless, 

And pardons all my sin ; 
But will the Saviour pardon me, 

O ! can I be forgiven ? 

M. Yes, Jesus died on Calvary, 

That we may go to heaven, 
And every one that seeks shall find, 

And all that ask shall have ; 
To all that knock, the Saviour kmd 

Will open and receive. 
Come, let us pray, and pray in faith, 

I can almost believe ; 
Why should we doubt what Jesus saith ? 

He will, he doth forgive. 
Grant us, O Lord, thy voice to hear, 

Which speaks our sins forgiven ; 
And make and keep us holy here, 

Then take us up to heaven. 



THE NEWS. 

Thomas. Well, Samuel, have you heard any 
news to-day 1 

Samuel. No, Thomas ; I have not heard any- 
thing very particular. 

T. Well, but if you have not, it is time you 
should ; and if you have, it is high time you 
should attend to it. 

S. Attend to what? is it something that af- 
fects me ? 



40 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

r. I will tell you. When we hear of a fire, 
a flood, a shipwreck, or a thunder storm, the 
news soon passes from our minds ; for though 
the flood, fire, shipwreck, or thunder storm may 
injure others^ they may not affect us ; we have 
nothing to do with them. But not so the pre- 
sent news ; for with it we all have to do. 

S. It must be strange news that can affect all. 
Pray tell us what it is. 

T. I will, Samuel. " He that covereth his 
sins shall not prosper." 

S. Well, but where does this news come 
from ? perhaps it may not be true. 

T. Nay, nay, Samuel ; there is no getting rid 
of it in this way : it comes from heaven, and it 
must be true, because God hath spoken it ; and 
I have been thinking about what we are doing, 
— rising up early, and late taking rest ; trying 
to buy cheap, and getting the highest prices for 
what we have to sell. What is all this toiling 
for? 

S. What is it for ? why that we may prosper, 
to be sure. 

T. Ah ! ah ! Samuel ; but if we are living in 
sin, this news proves fatal at once. " He that 
covereth his sins shall not prosper." 

'S^. Well ; but do you mean to say that / am 
covering my siu?? ? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 41 

T. I do not say you are, nor need you ask 
yourself; for you know whether you are sin- 
ning against God or not ; and if you are, this 
text belongs to you. 

S. Well, I will endeavor to think upon your 
news ; and if I think aright, it may not prove bad 
news to me. Good by. 

T. Stop, Samuel ; I have got some good news 
to tell you, — news that in some measure makes 
amends for the other. 

S, Well, let us hear it, for I must be going. 

T. Come, don't be in a hurry. We wont be 
long. The good news is this : — " Whosoever 
confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall find 
mercy." 

S. Well, this is good news, indeed ; but does 
it come from the same source as the other 1 

T. It is equally to be relied upon. We have 
not only God's own word for it, but his Son died 
on the cross to save sinners ; and "whosoever 
believeth on him shall be saved." 

S. And will God really pardon sin, and mani- 
fest his mercy ? 

T. He will, because he hath said it ; and he 
is not a promise-breaker. If you have been 
bitter and cruel, seek to be forgiving and merci- 
ful ; if you have dealt deceitfully, deal uprightly; 
if you liave stolen, steal no more ; if you have 



42 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

broken the sabbath, keep the sabbath day holy. 
Turn to God, and seek the pardon of your sins 
through the merits of Christ, and then the news 
will prove good news to you. "Whosoever 
confesseth his sins shall find mercy." 

S, I begin to think of taking your advice. 
But is all this possible ? 

T. Quite possible. Do this, and both the bad 
hews and the good news will prove a blessing 
to you. The bad, by warning you to flee from 
the wrath to come ; and the good, by bringing 
you on your knees before God. 



CHRIST AT THE WELL OF SAMARIA. 

A STRANGER aiid pilgrim on earth 
Did Jesus, the Saviour, appear ; 

Exposed to hunger and thirst 

While living and sojourning here. 

When trav'ling Judea around, 
To a city of Samaria he arrived, 

Very near to a parcel of ground 
That Jacob to Joseph did give. 

The patriarch's v/ell here he found. 
With its water, refreshing and sweet ; 

Near to it he sat himself down. 
And rested his wearied feet. 

A woman of Samaria drev/ near, 

While the Saviour did sit on the brink ; 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 43 

Being thirsty, lie said unto her, 
" Give me of thy water to drink." 

The favor from her he desired 

Was a draught of the water she drew — 
" No deahngs," she quickly replied, 

" The Samaritan hath with the Jew." 

He answer 'd, '^ If thou did'st but know 

The person that asketh of thee, 
Thou'dst surely say, Master, bestow 

The water of Kfe upon me." 

" Why Jacob our father to us gave the well — 

Art thou any greater than he ? 
While li^dng he drank of the water himself, 

His cattle, and his family." 



A DIALOGUE ON PRAYER. 

Henry. Does God command us all to pray, 

Pray always, and not cease ? 
And must we do so every day. 

Would we our jMaker please? 

Samuel. Yes: God commands us all to pray, 

'Tis written in his word ; 
And we must do so every day. 

Always to please the Lord. 

H. But I am sprightly, young, and gay. 

To pleasure more inclined ; 
And need I yet begin to pray ? 

Why, see, I'm quite a child ! 



44 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

S. But children quite as young as you 
Are call'd to yield their breath ; 

And it may soon be your lot too, 
To close your eyes in death. 

H. But I have sinn'd against the Lord, 

Alas ! what shall I say ? 
His curse is written in his word, 

He'll spurn my prayer away. 

S. But Christ the Son of God was given, 

For Adam's sinful race ; 
And mercy now looks down from heaven 

There is a throne of grace. 
With heart sincere, approach that throne, 

While Jesus pleads above ; 
Grod will receive you for his own. 

And bless you with his love. 

H. But I am dark and blind withui, 

Without one heavenly ray ; 
Feeble am I, weigh'd down with sin, 

I have no power to pray. 

S. The Spirit, all light, all power, all love, 

The father will impart ; 
And raise youi' souls to things above. 

And cheer your drooping heart. 
Your heart-felt sighs, your groans untold, 

Shall all be heard in heaven ; 
And blessings, in a thousand-fold. 

Through Christ be freely given. 

H. But so unworthy, vile, am I, 

No merit can I bring ; 
How dare I raise my voice on high 

To heaven's eternal King ! 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 45 

S. But he who dwells above the sky 
Comes down to humble prayer ; 

And though we tremble while we cry. 
He brings salvation near, 

H. Then, brother, let us now begin 

This work without delay ; 
That we may both the Saviour win, 

While we believe and pray. 

S. 01 Father, 7iow the Spirit giv«, 

Our prayerful hearts to raise ; 
And may we in the Spirit live, 

Till prayer shall end in praise. 
And when our Father's face we see, 

In heaven's unclouded day, 
How thankful shall we ever be 

That we on earth did pray! W. H, 



HOW TO SHORTEN THE DAY. 

Jane. Where are you going so fast, Sarah ? 
I have seen yon pass this way several morn- 
ings, about this time. 

Sarah, {still keeping on.) I am going to the 
school, you know, across the river. 

/.So far as that, every day ? You may well 
be tired. I am glad my mother would not con- 
sent to send me there. 

S. O, it is not so far ; and if it were further 
I would still go. 



46 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

/. And why do you love school so much 1 

S. If you but knew what we learn, and how 
happy we are ! 

J. For my part I can't see how any one can 
love school : to be there so long, and always 
learning, how tiresome ! 

S. Well, but I do not find it so now. 

/. Were you much amused there, yester- 
day? 

S, Amused, Jane ! Why do you talk of 
amusement ? I spent a very happy day. 

/. I confess that is more than I can say. I 
waited here till noon, without seeing a person 
go by. After dinner I returned immediately, but 
all in vain : I then went out to see if I could 
find somebody to play with, but they were all 
either gone to town, or at school ; and I was 
just now thinking how one could shorten such 
long and tedious days. 

S. Ah ! there is a sure method of finding our 
days even too short ; and that is, when we spend 
them in doing good. 

/. Doing good-!- that is easily said ; but when 
one is weary of one's self, and has nothing to 
do, what good is it you would have us to do 1 

S. Poor Jane ! if you would but read the Bi* 
ble, you would soon know what good there is 
to do every day of your life. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 47 

/. It is that book you have there, I dare 
say. O, how pretty it is ! How it glitters ! 
Who gave it you ? 

S. Our dear minister, and the superin- 
tendent of the school, made me a present of it 
to-day. 

/. You are lucky ; and if I had a book 
like that, I think I should read in it sometimes, 
though Mr. > says that it is full of lies, and 

is published by cunning men, who wish to de- 
ceive us. 

>S. Ah, Jane, if Mr. would but read 

the Bible, he would find it to be the word of 
God ; and the source of wisdom and true hap- 
piness. 

/. I assure you I begin to think so, be- 
cause when your good father was living, how 

gentle and kind he was, while at our house, 

but it is not best for me to say it. 

S. You are right, Jane ; but that shows 
you, that without instruction in God's truth, 
there are only sinful and wretched habits. 

/. I should be happy, Sarah, if I could live 
as you do. 

Sarah. And what hinders you from doing 
this ? You may come every evening, and read 
the Bible at our house ; and as your mother 
will not let you go to school, I — 



48 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

/. O, my mother is much altered since 
she was taken ill ; and has already told me^ 
three times, that she wished to send me, and 
would speak to your mother about it. 

S, You see how God is disposing her 
mind. Do come ; you will learn to know Jesus 
Christ, and I am sure this will make you 
happy. 



THE LITTLE BOY'S INQUIRY, *^WHAT IS 
HEAVEN?" 

G. O ! WHAT is heaven, I ^vant to kno"w, 

And wliat is passing there ; 
Do gentle rivers brightly flow, 

And flowers perfume the air ? 

H. l^'es, there are flowers which never fade, 

And streams that never dry; 
And there is known no evening shade 

To dim the glorious sky. 

G. O ! what is heaven, I w^ant to know; 

Are children playing there ; 
And do they thirst and hunger now, 

And feel a parent's care ? 

H. No, never do they hunger there, 

Nor precious moments waste ; 
But beauteous as the angels are, 

With Chinst's own image graced. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 49 

G. O I what is heaven, I want to know 
If the field flowers bloom on high. 

And in meadows gi'een, like those below, 
Do birds and insects fly ? 

H. I cannot tell, my dearest boy, 

If aught like these there be ; 
But eveiy one will be full of joy. 

And loveliest sights will see. 

G. But where is heaven ? O ! is it far 

Above the ground I tread ; 
Or is it fix'd in yonder stai'. 

Whose beams shine mildly red ? 

H. No : 'tis the Saviour's smiling face 

That makes the heaven above ; 
And would we reach that happy place, 

We here his name must love. 

'Tis in his word that we are told 

Of bliss beyond the sky, 
And how to obtain a crown of gold, 

All glorious, when we die. 

G. Deal' Jesus, may I now be thine. 

And have my sins forgiven ; 
Along with saints and angels shine 

With thee — for that is heaven. W. S. R. 



ENIGMA FROM SCRIPTURE. 

In the Testament Old and the Testament New, 
One object there is often held out to view, 
And in various ways. 

4 



50 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

In one urgent case, as the record there stands, 

It became two strong walls, rear'd through less than two 

hands ; 
The height or the length 'tis not needful to state, 
Long or short, high or low, the intention was great. 
These were raised in less time than a night and a day, 
But were not made of stones, bricks, wood, iron, nor clay; 
No mortar w^as used, nor one single tool; 
No adjustment was needed by plumb-line nor rule; 
Yet their end they so answer'd, there never had been 
More complete adaptation conceived nor seen ; 
And in these you'll perceive, when my riddle you've 

solved. 
Of thousands the destiny deeply involved. 
If of what they were made some good friend will now 

state. 
And in rhyme their connection will also relate, 
A friend will consider the favor not small — 
Such he reckons the answers respecting St. Paul. 



READING THE BIBLE. 

Mary. I am come to see you, Nancy, this 
afternoon, if I may. 

Nancy. Yes, Mary, why should you question 
it? for I am very glad to see you; and my 
mother is always willing to have you here. 

M. I was afraid you had got a task to learn, 
because I saw you with a book in your hand ; 
that made me ask if I might stay. 



SUxNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 51 

iY. No, I was not learning anything; I was 
only reading a chapter to myself. 

M. You love reading better than I, for I think 
I have reading enough at school ; I don't love 
to read at home too. 

N. Not love to read the Bible, Mary ! 'tis 
sad indeed if you don't. 

M. Yes, I like well enough to read it ; but 
not at school and at home too. 

N. 1 read at school as well as you, but I 
generally read a chapter to my parents besides, 
and sometimes to myself. 

M. U you like to read so much, it is very 
well ; but I think you have no gi'eat occasion 
for it, for you can read better than I. 

N. Perhaps not ; but that is not the chief 
thing I read at home for. 

M, No ! I thought what all children read 
their books for was to learn. 

N. Pray what do other people read for ? don't 
your parents too read the Bible ? 

M. Yes, but they read it to mark the sense, 
which is none of our business till we grow 
bigger. 

N. O dear, Mary ! don't talk so ! Is it none 
of our business to know what God has said unto 
us in his word ? 

M. No, not till we are older, for we can't 



52 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

understand it yet : I can't at least ; I don't know 
what you do. 

N. Yes, you and I too may understand some- 
thing of it, if we read carefully ; nay, there is 
my little brother, who is not above five years 
old, will very often give an account of what he 
has been reading at school, and if it is any 
pretty story, will repeat most of it. 

M. Why, are there any pretty stories in the 
Bible ? I love stories dearly, but never found 
any pretty ones there. 

N. No, that's strange indeed! you might 
well say you did not understand what you 
read ; but the reason is, you did not pay atten- 
tion. 

M. Yes, I do pay attention, or else how could 
I learn to read ? 

N, You pay attention to read the words right, 
but I do not find you understand the meaning 
of them. 

M. No, indeed, that is true ; for I always 
thought it was what I knew nothing of. But 
what are the stories about? I should like to 
know them. 

N. I am sorry to see you are so ignorant, 
indeed, Mary. Were you never taught who 
was the first man ? and who was saved in the 
ark, when the world was drowned ? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 53 

M. Yes, I was taught these things when I 
was a little baby, and was in my primer. 

N. Well, and don't you remember reading 
those stories when you were in the beginning 
of Genesis ? 

M. No, indeed I don't ; are they there ? 

iV. Yes, and toward the latter end is all the 
story of Joseph, whom his brethren sold into 
Egypt. 

M. O, I remember I have read something 
about DanieVs being put into the lions' den ; is 
that in the Bible too ? 

N, Yes, that is in the sixth chapter of Daniel; 
and in the third chapter is the story of the three 
children in the fiery furnace. 

M, I'll look for these stories, and read 
them. But pray tell me what others there 
are. 

N. There are so many, that I can't tell you 
a quarter of them. In the New Testament, the 
first five hooks are full of very pretty ones. 

M. What are they about? 

iV. Dear Mary, no doubt you have been told 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sin- 
ners ; that he was born of the Virgin Mary; 
that while he lived here he did a great many 
miracles : made the blind see, the deaf hear, 
the lame walk, and raised the dead to life. 



54 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

M, I don't know ; but is this all in the New 
Testament ? 

N. Yes, also how Christ was put to death 
on the cross, how he rose again the third day, 
and afterward ascended into heaven. 

M. Well, I believe I shall like to read these 
stories; I'll read some every day, and mind 
more what is read at school. 

N. Pray do, and we will have a little more 
talk about them the next time I see you. 



THE GOOD PHYSICIAN. 

James, Father, I wonder who is the best 
doctor in this town ? 

Edmund. That I cannot say ; but still, I know 
a doctor that would be worth more than all of 
them together ; for his skill has never failed 
him in a single instance when applied to, and 
when people have attended carefully to his ad- 
vice. I am sorry, however, to observe, that 
most people are unwilling to apply to him, and 
will commonly try every other remedy first; 
and some have even perished rather than attend 
to his advice. 

J. I suppose he must be hard-handed, and 
perhaps a hard-hearted doctor, then ? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 55 

E. By no means, my dear boy. The doctoi 
I refer to is both tender-hearted and tender- 
handed. The first man in this world that ever 
needed any doctor was troubled with a certain 
complaint, which the Lord has said was not 
good ; but he was cured in the following man- 
ner: — While he was fast asleep, the doctor 
which I refer to, and whom I would always 
recommend, went to him quietly, and opened 
his side, without either knife or lancet, and took 
out one of his ribs, and closed up the place 
again, and made all well ; and made the finest 
woman that ever was seen out of the rib ; doing 
all so quietly that the man never woke till it 
was over, and the complaint was removed : and 
when he awoke he was the happiest man in all 
the world ! 

/. Ay, that was a cure, sure enough ! and 
that was a doctor, and a good doctor too ! / 
know who that doctor was ! That doctor cures 
the dead ; and that is what no other doctor will 
be able to do. That doctor is the Great Phy- 
sician ! But, can you tell me why he did not 
make Eve in the same way in which he had 
created Adam ? Why did he first make Adam 
out of the dust of the ground, and then make 
Eve out of one of his ribs ! Can you just explain 
that matter to me ? 



56 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 

E, Well, I think I can. The reason, I con- 
ceive, was this : — Only suppose that God had 
first made Adam out of one piece of clay, and 
then made Eve out of another piece of clay; 
Adam's piece of clay might have been red, and 
Eve's piece of clay might have been white : at 
all events, they would not have been of the same 
piece. And it might have happened, in the 
course of life, that Adam and his wife had dif- 
fered in opinion on some matter ; and the devil, 
who was quite as busy then as he is now, might 
have got in between them, and he might have 
persuaded Adam that his piece of clay was 
better than the one of which his wife was made ; 
or he might have persuaded Eve to think that 
her piece of clay was better than the one of 
which her husband was made ; and they might 
have been wrangling and contending about it 
all the days of their lives ^ But, after God had 
made them in the way he did, they never could 
presume that one was better than the other. 
Adam never could be so unthinking as to fancy 
he was better than his wife, when she had been 
made out of one of his ribs ; and Eve could 
never be so vain as to believe that she was better 
than her husband, when she knew that she had 
been taken out of his side : and, therefore, 
Adam and his wife could never hate each other 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 57 

without hating their own flesh ; and which the 
apostle tells us no man ever did. 

/. And do you think that Adam's children knew 
how God had made their father and their mother? 

E. To be sure they did. Their parents 
would be sure to tell them all they knew about 
it. And then, if any difference should ever 
happen between their father and their mother, 
the children could never take the side of one 
against the other, but must love them both alike. 
They could not say that father was better than 
mother, or mother better than father ; because 
they were of the same substance, the same flesh 
and blood, and the same piece of clay. 

/. And so were the children too. 

E, Very true, very true ; and that is the true 
reason why children of the same family should 
love each other, girls and boys, and boys and 
girls ; and that is the reason why all mankind 
should love each other. God himself regards 
all his human family with equal kindness ; and he 
would have all men to be saved ; and he would 
have us all to love each other as we love our- 
selves, and to do unto others as we would they 
should do unto us. Such were the purposes of 
God, our great Creator, in making of one blood all 
nations of men to dwell on all the face of the 
earth. 



58 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

/. Well, then, I am glad that God Almighty- 
did not make Adam out of one piece of clay, and 
Eve out of another. They would not have 
loved each other half so well. And if anything 
Mali prevent us from quarreling with each other, 
it must be our remembering that God made us 
out of the same piece of clay. 



A.NSWER TO THE ENIGMA ON SCRIPTURE. 

In the Testament Old, or the Testament New 

Whatever is written is perfectly true ; 

And there most astonishing wonders are told,. 

How God interposed for Israel of old. 

Once surrounded by enemies, dangers, and death, 

The Egyptians behind, the hiUs right and left, 

While vidth grandeur before them the Red Sea did flow, 

Jehovah commanded them onward to go : 

The waters divided, and quickly became 

A wall on the right and the left of the same. 

The sea thus divided in m^'esty stood, 

Till God's chosen people had pass'd by the flood, 

Then tum'd on the persons who follow'd them there. 

And whelm'd them in horror, in death, and despair. 

The power Jehovah sustains with a nod, 

Declares him to be the omnipotent God. A. S. C. 



THE NAUTILUS— A DIALOGUE. 

Robert. Edmund, I want you to tell me an- 
other story. You have told me many, and I 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 59 

thank you for the useful lessons contained in 
them, but you know we are always wanting 
something new. 

Edmund. What must it be about, Robert ? 

R, Something good and useful. I know 
enough that is bad. 

E, Well, name your subject, and then we 
will try to set about it. 

R, Well, I have thought a good deal, Ed- 
mund, about the nautilus. I want to see one 
very much. 

E, If you should ever go on the ocean, in a 
ship, when you grow up to be a man, you will, 
probably, see many of them. But there are 
some things which you see every day, which 
are as curious as the nautilus is. 

R, Edmund, a chicken is a curious little 
animal. 

E, Yes, Robert ; and if you could look inside 
of a chicken, you would find a great many parts 
quite as curious as the sails and paddles of the 
nautilus. And you would see as much won- 
derful design, in the way in which these parts 
are put together, and what they are made for. 
Look, too, at the outside of a chicken. Stroke 
its little feathers. How smooth, and light, and 
warm they are ! What a good covering they 
are for the little creature ! How many feathers 



60 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 

there are, all lying one way! and every feather 
itself is very curious. The mouth of a chicken 
is very different from the mouth of a dog or of 
a cat. It has a long bill, made sharp, and opens 
so that it can pick up the corn and little seeds 
very easily, like a pair of nippers. It has claws 
too, just right for scratching in the ground to 
find its food, and for keeping fast hold of the 
branch of a tree when it grows older, and goes 
there to roost at night. I think a chicken has 
as many curious parts as the nautilus. 

i^. I do not know but it has, Edmund ; and 
I think it would be a great deal more difficult 
for anybody to make a little chicken, with 
wheels inside, so that it could walk, and scratch 
in the ground, and pick up corn and seeds, 
than it would be to make a nautilus that would 
sail. 

E. It would be so, Robert. But now I wish 
to explain something to you, that is more won- 
derful than anything which I have yet told you 
about the nautilus or the chicken. Suppose 
your uncle John could make a nautilus, with so 
many new and curious wheels inside of it, that 
somehow or other these wheels would move, 
and by and by make another nautilus, just like 
the first. And suppose there should be wheels 
inside of this second one, that should move in 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 61 

the same way, and make a third, and so on till 
a hundred were made. 

R, Edmund, you know that uncle John, or 
anybody else, never could do that. 

E. But only suppose that he could, Robert. 
Would you not think that his contrivance and 
skill would be a thousand times more wonderful 
than if he made only one nautilus ? 

R. Certainly, Edmund, I should. 

E. Well, Robert, there is something like this 
with regard to the little chicken. You know the 
hen lays eggs : she hatches them, and the little 
chickens come out of the eggs. When the 
chickens grow up the^ lay eggs, and hatch more 
little chickens : and so they keep on year after 
year. 

R. How many years ago did the first hen 
live, Edmund? 

E. 0\ B, great, great many years ago. Do 
you not think that there was wonderful contri- 
vance, and skill, and design, shown in that first 
hen ? 

R. I do, indeed, Edmund ; for that first hen 
laid eggs, and little chickens came out of them ; 
and then these chickens grew up and laid more 
eggs, and more chickens came out of them ; 
and so on, till what a wonderful number of 
chickens there have been in the world ! 



62 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 

E. Yes, Robert. You see there is a great 
deal of contrivance and skill shown in a little 
chicken ; and a great deal of design in the way 
in which all its parts are put together. You 
see too, that all this contrivance, and skill, and 
design, was shown still more wonderfully in the 
first hen. Now when you look at a kite, you 
know with what design it was made, and you 
see the contrivance and skill with which its 
parts are put together. You know that some- 
body must have made it, and have thought be- 
forehand how to make it. The kite could not 
have made itself. So when you look at the 
curious little chicken, or the curious little nau- 
tilus, and see the wonderful design, and skill, 
and contrivance, which are shown in them, you 
know that some one must have made them, and 
have made the first hen, and the first nautilus, 
and have thought beforehand how to make them. 

It is your spirit, your ?mnd, which thinks be- 
forehand, which designs, and contrives, and 
directs your hands to be skillful, whenever you 
make a kite. 

It is God, the Great Spirit, the Eternal 
Mind, who thought beforehand, who designed, 
contrived, and made every little chicken and nau- 
tilus, and the first hen and nautilus, and the first 
things and beings, and all things and beings. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 63 

R. Thanks to you, Edmund. I shall think 
of our conversation, and hope to derive much 
benefit from it. 



EMMA AND LUCY— A DIALOGUE. 

Emma. I^want to know the reason why 
That we to Jesus Christ must fly ; 
And what's the meamng when you say 
We must believe, for that's the way? 

I often read and hear his name, 
And I believe that Jesus came ; 
But can I get to heaven's bliss 
By only just believing this ? 

Lucy. No, dearest child ! this is not all, 
Your very heart must hear his call. 
And when you feel you've naughty been, 
Believe that he can pardon sin. 

He came to earth, and clown from heaven. 
He died that we might be forgiven, 
And this is what you must believe, 
Those who repent, he will receive. 

Be really sony, and rely 
On Jesus Christ who came to die ; 
And pray to have your sins forgiven, 
And" he will help you on to heaven. 

E. But how can Jesus help us on ? 
You know that he to heaven is gone ; 
And will he leave his throne on high, 
To help us children when we cry ? 



64 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

L. No, he will still be shining there, 
But he, my love, is everywhere ; 
And well his tender heart doth know 
The little thoughts you think below. 
And when you feel that sin is bad. 
And think you should be really glad 
To leave it off, and serve him more 
Than ever you had done before ; 
And when you feel a wish to try, 
O ! then believe that Christ is nigh, 
And that he listens to your prayer, 
As well as if you saw him here. 
He need not come, you know, my dear, 
He is in heaven, and he is here. 
And this is what he wants to do, 
To give his Spirit unto you. 

E. That is a strange, surprising thing 
Will Jesus Christ his Spirit bring. 
And put a holier heart in me ? 
I cannot think how that can be. 
But if the Bible says he will, 
I hope I shall believe it still, 
And always ask him w^hen I pray, 
To take my stony heart away. 
Lord ! make me clean, put into me 
Such holy thoughts as are in thee ; 
And let me love thee, and depend 
With all my heart on such a Friend. 
'Tis true that I am poor and weak, 
But thou hast strength that I may seek 
Lord ! let me from thy grace receive, 
And help me, help me to believe. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 65 



JOSEPH BEFORE PHARAOH. 

George, You were telling me, Thomas, the last 
time we met, that the man who stood before 
Pharaoh was Joseph : please to tell me how 
Joseph came to be standing before the king. 

Thomas. I shall give you the words of the 
Bible : "And it came to pass that Pharaoh 
dreamed ; and, behold, he stood by the river. 
And there came up out of the river seven well- 
favored kine and fat-fleshed ; and they fed in a 
meadow. And, behold, seven other kine came 
up after them out of the river, ill-favored and 
lean-fleshed ; and stood by the other kine, upon 
the brink of the river. And the ill-favored and 
lean-fleshed kine did eat up the well-favored and 
fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. And he dream- 
ed a second time : and, behold, seven ears of 
corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. 
And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with 
the east winds sprung up after them. And the 
seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and 
full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it 
was a dream. And it came to pass in the morn- 
ing that his spirit was troubled ; and he sent for 
and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and 
all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told 
5 



66 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

them his dreams ; but there was none that could 
interpret them unto Pharaoh." Gen. xli, 1-8. 

G. I dare say that the chief butler thought of 
Joseph then, though he had not done so before. 

T. He did so, and he mentioned him to the 
king ; and Joseph was sent for. " They brought 
him hastily out of the dungeon, and he changed 
his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh." Gen, 
xli, 14. 

G. And did Joseph tell the meaning of the 
dreams, Thomas 1 

T. Yes, and Joseph interpreted the dream, 
and said, " The dream of Pharaoh is one : God 
hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. 
The seven good kine are seven years ; and seven 
good ears are seven years : the dream is one. 
And the seven thin and ill-favored kine that 
came up after them are seven years ; and the 
seven empty ears, blasted with the east wind, 
shall be seven years of famine. This is the 
thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh : what 
God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh. 
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty 
throughout all the land of Egypt: and there 
shall arise after them seven years of famine ; 
and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land 
of Egypt ; and the famine shall consume the 
land. And the plenty shall not be known in the 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 67 

land by reason of that famine following ; for it 
shall be very grievous." Gen. xli, 25-31. 

G. Was not Pharaoh very much frightened 
when he heard the interpretation of these 
dreams ? 

T. He was, indeed, as he well might be ; 
nevertheless, he must have seen the goodness 
of God in sending the seven plentiful years first, 
and also in warning him of what was to come, 
by which he might prevent the total destruction 
of his people. 

G. Why, what could he do to prevent the 
people from being starved in the years of fa- 
mine ? 

T. You shall hear what Joseph advised : 
" Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man dis- 
creet and wise, and set him over the land of 
Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him ap- 
point officers over the land, and take up the fifth 
part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous 
years. And let them gather all the food of those 
good years that come, and lay up corn under the 
hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the 
cities. x\nd that food shall be for store to the 
land against the seven years' famine, which 
shall be in the land of Egypt ; that the land 
perish not through the famine." Gen. xli, 33-36. 

G. Well, now, that was fine. I wonder I 



68 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 

did not think of it before. So they were to lay 
lip the corn, in the time of plenty, against the 
time of famine ? 

T. " And the thing was good in the eyes of 
Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. 
And Pharaoh said imto his servants, Can we 
find such a one as this is, a man in whom the 
Spirit of God is 1 And Pharaoh said unto Jo- 
seph, Forasmuch as God has showed thee all 
this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou 
art. Thou shalt be over my house, and accord- 
ing to thy word shall all my people be ruled : 
only in the throne will I be greater than thou. 
See I have set thee over all the land of Egypt." 
Gen. xli, 37-41. 

G. What a change it must have been to Jo- 
seph, to have been suddenly taken out of a pri- 
son and set over all Egypt! 

T. " And Pharaoh took off his ring from his 
hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed 
him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold 
chain about his neck ; and he made him to ride 
in the second chariot which he had ; and they 
cried before him, Bow the knee : and he made 
him ruler over the land of Egypt. And Pha- 
raoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and with- 
out thee shall no man lift his hand or foot in all 
the land of Egypt." Gen. xli, 42-44. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 69 

G. I should think, Thomas, that people were 
beginning at this time to live with more splen- 
dor ; for fine linen is spoken of, and a chariot, 
and a gold chain, and a ring. 

T. This is the first time that a chariot or 
linen is spoken of in Scripture ; but the fine 
linen of Egypt is spoken of elsewhere. 

G. Well, then, it is certain that they under- 
stood spinning and weaving before that time ; 
and yet I wonder how such things could first 
have been thought of. 

T. These things generally arise from rude 
and small beginnings : the most savage people 
plant reeds and osiers to make mats and baskets, 
and weaving is little more than the same thing, 
and was formerly done by the women of each 
family. 

G. That reminds me of what I find in my 
Latin books ; in w^hich we read of the prin- 
cesses spinning and weaving. 

T. And Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name, 
and married him to Asenath, daughter of Poti- 
phar, the priest of On, who brought him two 
sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. 

Conversations, 



70 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 



THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. 

Brightest of the stars of glory 

Seen by saint or seraphim, 
Sweetest that in sacred story, 

Christ the Saviour's natal gem. 
Wise men leading, 
Star that shone o'er Bethlehem. 

When with sorrow man is grieving, 

Every earthly prospect dim ; 
Through the gloom a light relieving. 

Shines from Mercy's diadem. 
Weeping mourner, 
'Tis the Star of Bethlehem. 

When the day of life is closing, 
Hush'd its care and fev'rish dream, 

On the Saviour's breast reposing, 
Sweeter still that Star doth seem, — 
Over Jordan 

Shining as o'er Bethlehem ! E. H. L. 



HOW TO BEHAVE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. 

Sarah, What is the matter, Jane 1 How is 
it that you who are generally so brisk and gay, 
now look so dull and dejected ? I hope my pre- 
sence does not annoy you ? 

Jane, O no, Sarah ; your company is always 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 71 

pleasant to me ; but I am unhappy, and have 
sufficient reason to be so. 

S. What, have you been corrected for some 
fault ? 

/. 1 have indeed been corrected, and I must 
own I deserved it : for the reproofs which have 
before been given me have often convinced me 
of the impropriety of my conduct. 

S. Pray what have you done, that you thus 
condemn yourself? 

/. I may well condemn myself, and so will 
you condemn me when I tell you that I have 
been guilty of light and irreverent behavior in 
the worship of God ; and what greatly adds to 
my offense is, that I have often had the evil of 
it laid before me, and have been repeatedly ad- 
monished, and yet I have again and again trans- 
gressed, both in public and family worship. 

S. Well, you are certainly blameworthy, and 
I am very glad to see that you are not only con- 
vinced of your fault, but that you are brought to 
a feeling sense of your guilt ; for certainly such 
conduct calls for deep repentance, and I hope 
you are sorry for the sin as well as for the 
shame. 

J. I hope I am ; I am sure I have reason to 
be ashamed, that, at my age, and under the in- 
structions I have had, I should behave so ill as 



72 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

to be taken notice of either in the church or in 
the family. But when I consider it as a sin 
against God, it fills me with fear, lest he should, 
as he justly might, avenge himself of such a 
profaner of his name, and trifler in his worship^ 
as I have been. 

S. We ought by all means to guard against 
an unbecoming behavior in the worship of that 
God who is great and greatly to be feared, and 
who has told us that he will be had in reverence 
of all them that draw nigh to him ; and I hope, 
as you seem so sensible of your sin, that you 
will earnestly implore pardon, and not only con- 
fess your sin, but forsake it, for it is to such 
only, you know, to whom the promise of mercy 
is made. 

J. I hope I shall ; but really I am such a 
giddy and thoughtless creature, that I have little 
confidence in myself; for when I make a good 
resolution, I often break it upon the very first 
temptation that presents itself. 

S. You have, then, the more need to implore 
the aid of divine grace to fix and confirm you 
in your good purposes ; and, if you please, I will 
give you a few directions that were given to me, 
and which I have found of very great advantage. 

/. Thank you ; I am sure I shall be glad of 
any assistance you can give me. 



SUNDAY bCHOOL RECITER. 73 

<S. 1 was advised to consider, before I entered 
upon any religious exercise, in what I was go- 
ing to engage — a spiritual service, of all others 
the most important, and upon my success in 
which depends my present comfort, and my 
everlasting happiness. I was exhorted also to 
reflect with whom I had to do in every act of 
devotion — the great God, the Maker of heaven 
and earth ; my Creator, Preserver, and Judge, 
who continually searches my heart, and knows 
all my thoughts, intentions, and desires. In 
prayer I profess to be speaking to him, confess- 
ing my sins, and imploring pardon ; praising 
him for those mercies I have received, and ask- 
ing a continuance of his goodness. In hearing 
his word read, or faithfully expounded, God 
himself is speaking to me ; and if it be very 
unbecoming when our parents, teachers, or su- 
periors speak to us, to take no notice of what 
they say, surely it is more criminal to be care- 
less and inattentive w^hen our heavenly Father 
is declaring to us his most holy will and plea- 
sure, and thus giving us the rules by which we 
should regulate our lives. 

/. That is perfectly right ; and the thoughts 
of my past conduct make me tremble ; but go on. 

S. The next counsel that was given to me, 
and which is the last direction that I will men- 



74 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

tion at the present, is, always to keep in such a 
posture as will most tend to compose you to 
seriousness and devotion. Set a guard upon 
your eyes, which are the great inlets to vain 
and wandering thoughts ; for where there is a 
wandering eye, there is never a fixed mind. 
In prayer let your eyes be closed, and in hear- 
ing fix them upon the minister, and then your 
attention will be kept close, and you will be able 
to follow him in what he says. 

/. I am indeed very much obliged to you, 
Sarah, for your excellent remarks : I will en- 
deavor to remember them, and put them in prac- 
tice. I really must try to correct the natural 
lightness of my disposition. I will make use 
of the means which you have so kindly recom- 
mended, and I will tell you the next time I see 
you what benefit I have received from them. 

S. Do, and I shall be truly glad to hear that 
they have been successful ; for I am sure that 
if you can gain the command over your thoughts, 
and stay your mind upon good things, your reli- 
gious services will be much more pleasant to 
yourself, and acceptable in the sight of God; 
and your conduct will be much more pleasing 
to your friends. 

/. To be sure it will ; but, as it has been 
with me, I have neither pleased God, my friends, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 75 

nor myself. Worship of any kind has been a 
task to me, and this I know is not right. 

S. No, far from it : when that is the case, it 
is a sure sign that the heart is not right with 
God. If we love God with all our heart, and 
mind, and soul, and strength, we shall delight 
in his service, and wish to go to his house, and 
meet with his saints. 

/. But I am sure it has not been so with me. 
I have not attended to those things. I did not 
like the house of God, and the day of the Lord 
hung upon me more than any other day. I had 
no taste for those things which made for my 
peace ; and instead of praying for help, and lis- 
tening to the sound of mercy and love, my mind 
was after play, and I could not but show by my 
ways that my thoughts were elsewhere ; but I 
hope I shall be better in future. 

S. I hope you will, and indeed I have no 
doubt about it, because you seem to be fully 
aware of the impropriety of your past conduct, 
and desirous to mend it. But my time is gone: 
farewell — come and see me soon. 



76 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 



HYMN FOR AN INFANT CLASS. 

With songs of rejoicing, hosannas, and praise, 

To Jesus our offerings we bring ; 
Though humble our tribute, and feeble our lays, 

Yet he will attend when we sing. 

He is the good Shepherd, whose bounty and grace 

The sheep of his pasture may share ; 
The wants of the least in his bosom have place, 

But the lambs are his tenderest care. 

He loves to watch o'er them, to bear them along. 

And safe in his arms they shall rest; 
For while he protects them, what danger can wrong. 

Or pluck from his sheltering breast ? 

O ! Saviour in heaven, we pray thee attend, 

And grant in compassion our prayer ! 
Be thou our good Shepherd, our Father, and Friend, 

And we, the dear lambs of thy care ? 

R. W. D. 



HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS. 

Again the day hath on us smiled 

That hail'd a Saviour's birth, 
When meekly, as a little child, 

He came to dwell on earth. 
He came ! O well might angels wing 

Their way from worlds above, 
When they such glorious news could bring, 

The tidings of such love ! 



SUXDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 77 

Ah ! well might, shepherds catch the strain, 

Commingliiig with the throng, 
And echo o'er blest Bethlehem's plain 

The high and holy song. 
And well may we, for. whom he came. 

For w^hom he left the sky, 
With rapturous awe adore his name, 

And swell our triumphs high. 

Who would not praise him when for all 

His life w^as crown'd with wo, 
That all the ruin'd by the fall 

Such might}^ love should know ! 
'Twas to redeem us from the grave, 

The rebel sinners, we, 
That we mJght sing him strong to save 

To all eternity. P. P. 



CHRISTMAS DIALOGUE, 

BETWEEN GEORGE, ASA, CHARLES, JULIA, ANN ELIZA, 
EMMA, AND VIRGINIA. 

George. Good morning, Julia ; I wish you a 
happy Christmas ! 

Julia. Thank you, George, the same to you, 
and all our kind friends who have favored us 
with their company. 

George. But, Julia, do you know why it is so 
customary for our friends to greet one another 
with good wishes on this day ; and why it is 
called Christmas ? 



78 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

Julia. Certainly I do ; and so would you, if 
you had been as long in the sabbath school as 
I have. But some of our scholars are here who 
have had this subject for a lesson, and, I have 
no doubt, will be pleased to answer any ques- 
tions you may choose to ask. Asa, can you 
tell James why this is called Christmas 1 

Asa. O, yes. It is called Christmas because 
it is the day on which Christians celebrate the 
birth of Christ. 

Julia. Ann Eliza, will you please to tell 
George why it is a day of rejoicing ? 

Ann Eliza. Because his birth was declared 
by the angel to be a subject of great joy to all 
people. 

George. By the angel, did you say? What 
angel 1 

Ann Eliza. Why, the angel of the Lord, who 
came down from heaven to announce his birth 
to the shepherds, as you may find it written in 
St. Luke's Gospel, 2d chapter and 9th verse. 

Julia. Why, George, you look as if you had 
never heard these things before. If you wish 
it, I'll ask my schoolmates some more questions 
on this interesting subject. Our dear teachers 
have taken much pains to instruct us, and we 
are willing to show you and our dear friends, 
that their labor has not been altogether in vain. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 79 

George, Thank you, Julia, I have not the 
opportunity you have ; but I am anxious to learn. 

Julia. Emma, will you please to tell us where 
• Christ was born ? 

Emma. In a little village called Bethlehem 
of Judea, about six miles south-west of the great 
city of Jerusalem. 

Julia. That's right. But do you know why 
it was called Bethlehem of Judea? 

Emma. O yes ; to distinguish it from Beth- 
lehem of Galilee, of which we read in the 19th 
chapter of Joshua, and the 15th verse. 

Julia. Charles, do you recollect which of the 
prophets foretold that Jesus should be bom in 
Bethlehem I 

Charles. It was the prophet Micah, 5th chap- 
ter and 2d verse. 

George, (turning over the leaves of the Bible,) 
what chapter did you say ? 

Charles. 5th chapter and 2d verse. 

George. O, here it is. (Reads the verse.) 
Julia, can you mention some of the prophecies 
in the Old Testament referring to Christ ? 

Julia. Genesis, 49th and 1 0th : " The scep- 
tre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver 
from between his feet, till Shiloh come." Deu- 
teronomy, 18th and 15th : " The Lord thy God 
will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst 



80 SUNDAY SCHOOL RF.CITER. 

of thee, like unto me. Unto him shall ye 
hearken." Emma, can you remember another 1 

Emma. Isaiah says, in the 7th chapter and 
14th verse, " The Lord himself shall give you 
a sign. A virgin shall have a son, and shall 
call his name Immanuel." 

George. Immanuel ! is he the same as Christ 1 

Asa. Certainly; Immanuel is one of his 
names, and means, God with us. 

Julia. O, yes, he is known by several names. 
Perhaps Charles can mention some other. 

Charles. He is called Messiah, John 4th, and 
23d verse : " The woman saith, I know that 
Messiah cometh, which is called the Christ." 

Ann Eliza. Don't you remember, Charles, 
he is also called Lord and God, in the 20th 
chapter of John, and 25th verse : " Thomas 
answered and said unto him, my Lord and my 
God." The name of Jesus was also given him 
before his birth. 

Julia. Emma, we have heard that Jesus was 
born in Bethlehem of Judea. Can you tell how 
long since ? 

Emma. One thousand eight hundred and 
forty-iive years. 

Julia. And how long was it after the creation 
of the world, Asa ? 

Asa. Four thousand and four years. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 81 

George. Ann Eliza said something about an 
angel appearing to the shepherds. I should 
like to hear more about that. 

Ann Eliza. With pleasure, George ; I am 
delighted to see you so much interested. In 
the mild climate of Judea it was customar}^ for 
shepherds to keep watch over their flocks, by 
turns, all night. One morning, long before day- 
light, while some of them were thus employed, 
the glory of the Lord shone all around them, and 
the poor shepherds were very much frightened, 
for they did not know what it meant, and pre- 
sently they heard the voice of an angel, who 
said, " Fear not. Unto you is born this day a 
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." And then 
they heard a multitude of angels praising God, 
and singing glory to God in the highest, on earth 
peace, and good will to men ; — and as soon as 
the shepherds heard this, they left their flocks 
and went to Bethlehem, where they found the 
infant Jesus lying in a manger instead of a 
cradle. 

George. In a manger ! Why in a manger? 

Ann Eliza. Because there was no room for 
him in the inn. 

George. How very cruel and unkind that was ! 

Ann Eliza. Yes, George, and how strikingly 
this inn represents the condition of those chil- 
6 



82 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

dren that play in the streets on the sabbath, 
and don't go to Sunday school. There is no 
room found in their hearts for the Saviour either. 

Julia. Charles, can you tell who were the 
first preachers of the gospel of Christ ? 

Charles. Why, I think it must have been 
these shepherds Ann has been telling about ; 
for St. Luke says, " They made known abroad 
the sayings which were told them concerning 
Jesus." 

Asa. I think so too ; and what a beautiful 
text they had, " Glory to God in the highest, 
peace on earth, and good will to men." 

Julia. Asa, how does the birth of Christ bring 
peace to earth? 

Asa. Man, by nature, is a sinner, and God 
hath said there is no peace to the wicked. Now, 
Jesus Christ saves us from our sins ; and then, 
being justified by faith, w^e have peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Emma. You know, Asa, the Bible also says, 
" When the doctrine of Christ shall prevail over 
the whole earth, there will be no more wars. 
I think it says in the 2d chapter of Isaiah, and 
the 4th verse, " Nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more." As it is beautifully expressed by the 
poet, — 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 83 

** Ail crime shall cease, and ancient fraud shall feel 
Returning justice lift aloft her scale ; 
Peace o'er the land her olive wand extend, 
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend." 

Julia. Charles, what may we learn from the 
conduct of the apostles on this occasion '? 

Charles. We may learn to be diligent in busi- 
ness. The shepherds were attending to their 
ordinary business when the angel of the Lord 
appeared to them. 

Asa. Charles, yes ; and I think w^e may also 
learn that the event we this day celebrate is one 
of the most glorious that ever happened on earth. 

'' AU hail, happy day ! when, em-obed in our clay, 
The Redeemer appear'd upon earth ; 
How can we refrain to join the glad straia, 
And to hail our Immanuel's buth !" 

Julia. Dear children, we see in this subject 
the love of God to a lost world. It was for us 
that Christ came into the world, and ought we 
not to love him ! O, yes — 

" And for this love let rocks and hills 
Their lasting silence break — 
And all hai'monious human tongues 
Their Saviour's praises speak." 

*' Angels, assist our mighty joys, 
Stiike all your harps of gold — 



84 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

And when yoa raise your highest notes. 
His love can ne'er be told." 

Virginia. I think there is another thing we 
may learn. 

George. What is that, Virginia ? 

Virginia. Why, I think we should learn to 
imitate the shepherds. As soon as they heard 
of the birth of Jesus, they immediately set out, 
and did not stop until they found him. We 
have not far to go to find the same Jesus : 

'^ Not like the wise men of the East, 
Who journey 'd from afar, 
And had no guide upon the way, 
Except a little star, 

^* No journey long have we to take, 
Nor leave our friends behind — 
For even in the sabbath school 
A child may Jesus find." 

George. Well, I learn from what you all say 
that the Sunday school is the place for me, if my 
parents will give me permission. Do you think 
your teacher will receive me ? 

Asa. O, yes. 

Julia. I think nothing, except our conversion, 
gives our superintendents more pleasure than to 
receive new scholars. J. F. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 85 



HYMN FOR TEACHERS AND CHILDREN. 

Teachers. Children, can you tell lis why, 
Angel-light illumed the sky, 
When upon the fearful night, 
Mercy smiled in heaven's light ? 

Children. Teachers, yes, that glorious hour 
Saw the Saviour's wond'rous power, 
When he banish 'd Salem's gloom. 
Rose in ti'iumph from the tomb. 

T. Children, could you feel her grief, 
When lone ]\Iary sought relief. 
Would you not with her delight 
Still to watch the tardy night? 

C. Teachers, yes; — perfumes we'd strew, 
Tears \vould mingle with the dew, 
Gladness then should chase our gloom, 
Jesus rising from the tomb. 

T. Cliildren, come — your Lord adore, 
High he lives, to die no more. 
Once he slept in Joseph's grave, 
Now he reigns a Prince to save. 

C. Teachers, yes, with glory's thi'ong, 
We will chant redemption's song, 
He hath driven death afar. 
Reigns he now *^ the mornmg star." 

J. K. 



86 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

SCRIPTURAL DIALOGUE FOR A CLASS OF 
SCHOLARS. 

Edward, Respected friends, suffer me to 
present before you these my young associates, 
and to claim your attention a few moments, 
while I shall ask them a few questions in rela- 
tion to this good book — yes, the best of books. 
Who do you think was the author of this book ? 

All answer. God. 

Edward. Why, Ervin, are not the individuals, 
whose names stand at the head of the different 
portions of the Scriptures, placed there as their 
authors ? 

Ervin. Certainly not as their authors ; but 
God chose them as instruments through which 
he could speak to a fallen world. Just listen — 
I will give you proof of it : " For the prophecy 
came not in old time by the will of men ; but 
holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost." 2 Pet. i, 21. Again: "All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of 
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works." 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17. Don't that 
prove it, Edward ? 

Edward. I think it does. Now, Ann, we 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 87 

have proved that the Bible is the word of God, 
can you tell me v^^hat it teaches ? 

Ann. O yes ; it says, " In the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth." Gen. i, 1. 
" And God said, Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness. So God created man in his 
own image ; in the image of God created he 
him ; male and female created he them." Gen. 
i, 26, 27. 

Edward. Well, William, did man obey God ? 

William. O, no ; God said, " But of the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not 
eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, 
thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii, 17. Again: 
" And when the woman saw that the tree was 
good for food, and that it was pleasant to the 
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, 
she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and 
gave also unto her husband with her, and he did 
eat." Gen. iii, 6. 

Edward. Martha, can you tell me whether 
man retained the image of God after his trans- 
gression ? 

Martha. He did not, as we read in Gen. vi, 
50 : " And God saw that the wickedness of man 
was great in the earth, and that every imagina- 
tion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually." Again we read in Isaiah i, 4-6 : 



88 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

" Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, 
a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters ! 
they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked 
the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone 
away backward. Ye will revolt more and more ; 
the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is 
faint ; from the sole of the foot even unto the 
head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, 
and bruises, and putrefying sores." 

Edward. Conger, what relation do you think 
man sustained to his Maker after his fall 1 

Conger. Why, Edward, I certainly think it 
must have been the relation of a rebel ; for man 
had broken God's holy law, and rebelled against 
his righteous government, as we read in the 
book of Isaiah, chap, i, 2, 3 : " Hear, O hea- 
vens, and give ear, O earth ; for the Lord hath 
spoken : I have nourished and brought up chil- 
dren, and they have rebelled against me. The 
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's 
crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth 
not consider." 

Edward. Emily, you have been a long time 
in the sabbath school : I want to ask what you 
think must have been man's final destiny, if he 
had continued in this wretched condition ? 

Einily. Why, I think he could not have es- 
caped eternal death ; for God hath said by the 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 89 

mouth of his prophet Ezekiel, chap, xviii, 4, 
" Behold, all souls are mine ; as the soul of the 
father, so also is the soul of the son mine : the 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." " Wherefore, 
as by one man sin entered into the world, and 
death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, 
for that all have sinned." Rom. v, 12. " The 
wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the 
nations that forget God." 

Edward, Wretched, indeed, was the condition 
of man by reason of his transgression. [To the 
whole class.^ Let me ask the class one ques- 
tion : Do you think that God left man in this 
sinful and fallen condition ? 

All answer, O, no, he did not. 

Edward. John, what have you read in your 
Bible to convince you that he did not ? 

John. Edward, I am surprised that you should 
have asked me this question. Why, immedi- 
ately after the first transgression God declared 
that the seed of the woman should bruise the 
serpent's head. Gen. iii, 15. And to Abraham 
he said, " In thy seed shall all the kindreds of 
the earth be blessed ;" and many other passages 
are to be found in the Old Testament, pointing 
directly to a coming Saviour. 

Edward. Elizabeth, you have been for a long 
time a Bible scholar : I want you to tell me 



90 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

what reason we have to believe that this Saviour 
ever did make his appearance on earth ? 

Elizabeth. Indeed, Edward, I think the testi- 
mony is abundant. Why, I think that the most 
skeptical, if they were here, could not for one 
moment doubt. Yes, my very heart seems to 
glow with gratitude and love to my heavenly 
Father, for the gift of such a Saviour. And by 
an eye of faith I can view him as the babe of 
Bethlehem ; and a few years after tarrying be- 
hind at Jerusalem, to dispute with the doctors 
of the law ; and then at Nazareth, in the syna- 
gogue, declaring to the multitude that the Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anoint- 
ed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath 
sent me to heal the broken-hearted ; to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that 
are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of 
the Lord ; and from that time going about doing 
good to the close of his life. 

Edward. John, for what purpose did Christ 
come into the world ? 

John. St. Luke says, " The Son of man is 
come to seek and to save that which was lost." 
And I think, Edward, that the prophet Isaiah 
has placed this subject in a very clear light : he 
says, " All we like sheep have gone astray ; we 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 91 

have turned every one to his own way ; and the 
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 
And Matthew says, " His name was called Je- 
sus, for he should save his people from their 
sins." 

Edward, Mary, upon what conditions will 
Jesus pardon the sinner 1 

Mary. Why, Edward, it is upon condition of 
" repentance toward God, and faith toward our 
Lord Jesus Christ." Acts xx, 21. St. Mark 
tells us that " he that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall 
be damned." St. Paul says, " By grace are ye 
saved through faith, yet not of yourselves, it is 
the gift of God." 

Edward. Why, Mary, is it simply by believ- 
ing that we are saved from our sins 1 

Mary. It is. For when the trembling jailor 
said to the apostles, " Sirs, what must I do to 
be saved 1 they said unto him. Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and 
thy house." 

Edward. John, I think I never saw the plan 
of salvation look so plain before as Mary has 
made it appear. 

John. And indeed, Edward, I thought so too ; 
and it brought very forcibly to my mind a pas- 
sage that I have read in my Bible : speaking 



92 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

of the road that leads to heaven, it says, " It is 
so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
need not err therein." 

Edward. Maria, do you believe that Christ 
purchased salvation for all ? 

Maria. Most assuredly I do ; for St. Paul tells 
us in Heb. ii, 9, " But we see Jesus, who was 
made a little lower than the angels, for the suf- 
fering of death crowned with glory and honor, 
that he, by the grace of God, should taste death 
for every man :" and the Lord hath said by his 
prophet Isaiah, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, 
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there 
is none else." Chap, xlv, 22. 

Edward. Ervin, we have proof positive that 
Christ purchased salvation for all ; but we want 
to know if our Bible tells us anywhere that all 
sinners may come and partake of the benefits of 
this great salvation. 

Ervin. Certainly I think it does, Edward ; 
and two or three passages just occur to my 
mind. We read in Isaiah thus : "Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the 
Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to 
our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Again, 
in Matthew, " Come unto me all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 93 

Chap, xi, 28. " In the last day, that great day 
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If 
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 
And John, the revelator, tells us that " the Spi- 
rit and the Bride say, Come ; and let him that 
heareth say, Come ; and let him that is athirst 
come ; and whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." Don't these passages 
make it plain, Edward ? 

Edward. O yes, to my mind it is very clear. 
But lest any should doubt, I thought I would ask 
Edwin if he has ever seen anything in his Bible 
to prove that Jesus would save the worst of sin- 
ners. 

Edivin. I think I have, Edward. Does not 
the apostle Paul declare, that " this is a faithful 
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of 
whom I am chief?" 1 Tim. i, 15. 

Edwai'd, I am glad that we have this oppor- 
tunity to show our friends that we, as children, 
have abundant encouragement, by the many pre- 
cious promises in the Bible, to hope for sal- 
vation. Martha, can you refer to any passage 
that says children may come to the Saviour 
too? 

Martha. O yes. Jesus himself has said, 
" Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to 



94 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven.'^ 

Edward. Henry, do we read of any that did 
serve the Lord in their youth ? 

Henry. O yes, many, I will refer to one or 
two. Samuel was one ; for we read in 2 Sam. 
i, 26, " And the child Samuel grew, and was in 
favor both with the Lord and also with men." 

Edward. Emily, we have heard of one : do 
you know of any more ? 

Emily. Yes. " Josiah was eight years old 
when he began to reign, and he did that which 
was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked 
in the ways of David his father, and declined 
neither to the right hand nor to the left." 

Edward. Edwin, can you prove from your 
Bible that Christ did bless little children when 
on earth? 

Edwin, O yes : we read that " they brought 
young children unto him, and he took them 
in his arms, and laid his hands upon them, and 
blessed them." 

Edward. Conger, what encouragement have 
we in the Bible to seek the Lord in our youth 1 

Conger. I think we have much. We read in 
Prov. viii, 17, ''I love them that love me, and 
those that seek me early shall find me." Again 
we read in Eccles. xii, 1, " Remember now thy 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 95 

Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil 
days come not, nor the years draw nigh when 
thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." 

Edward. Mary, have you ever heard of any 
children that serve the Lord at the present day? 

Mary. I have heard of many. We were told 
in our sabbath school, a few weeks since, by 
the superintendent of another school, of one lit- 
tle girl that loved the Saviour. She was taken 
very sick, and sent for her superintendent. He 
asked her if she was willing to die and leave 
her school and parents, and she said yes. He 
asked her why. She said because she loved 
Jesus, and Jesus loved her, and he would take 
her to heaven. 

Edward, Maria, can you tell us of any more ? 

Maria. I can. Mr. Lee, the missionary, has 
told us of one of the little Indian girls among 
the Flat Heads that had been to the sabbath 
school and heard of the white man's God : she 
had learned to pray and love the Saviour. One 
night Mr. Lee got up in the dark to administer 
some medicine to a sick person, and found this 
little girl on her knees praying to God at mid- 
night. She was soon taken sick, and was about 
to die. He asked her if she was not afraid to 
die. She said, " No : if she died she should go 
to the Saviour, he would take care of her." 



96 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

Edward. Ann, I want you to tell us if you 
think that the Lord will enable us to walk in 
his ways after we become his followers ? 

Ann. O, he certainly will, if we are faithful ; 
for the Saviour, when upon earth, styled him- 
self " the good Shepherd," and " my sheep, said 
he, know my voice, and follow me." Why, 
Edward, did you never read those beautiful lines 
of the Psalmist ? just listen while I repeat them : 
" The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; 
he leadeth me beside the still waters. He re- 
storeth my soul ; he leadeth me in the paths of 
righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though 
I w^alk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me : thy 
rod and thy staff they comfort me." 

Edward. Henry, I want to ask you one more 
question : is not the life of the Christian called 
a warfare ? 

Henry. It is. 

Edward. Well, Henry, may he not fall by the 
hand of his enemies in spite of all his efforts ? 

Henry. Certainly I think not, if he is faithful 
to follow the Captain of his salvation ; but I 
would refer you to one of great spiritual experi- 
ence for information — it is the apostle Paul : he 
says, " If God be for us, who can be against us." 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 97 

Rom. viii, 31. Again: "Who shall separate 
us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or 
distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- 
ness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these 
things we are more than conquerors, through 
him that loved us." 

Edward. William, what does the Bible say 
will become of good children after death ? 

William. Edward, why I am sure you must 
have read those beautiful lines of the prophet 
Isaiah : just listen, " The ransomed of the Lord 
shall return and come to Zion with songs and 
everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall 
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sigh- 
ing shall flee away." Again, Matt, xxv, 34 : 
" Then shall the King say unto them on his 
right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world." 

Edward, I thought if you would have patience 
with me, Elizabeth, I should like to ask one 
more question. 

Elizabeth, I will hear you with pleasure, 
Edward. 

Edward. Can you refer us to a passage in 
your whole Bible that tells of any older Chris- 
tians (that had to contend with those trials 
and tribulations spoken of by St. Paul) that 
7 



98 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

ever did reach the fair banks of eternal deliver- 
ance ? 

Elizabeth. O yes, I can ; and how it rejoices 
my heart when I think of it ! They are the 
words of one of the elders before the throne of 
God to the revelator John : " And one of the 
elders answered, saying unto me, What are 
these which are arrayed in white robes ? and 
whence came they 1 And I said unto him. Sir, 
thou knowest. And he said to me, These are 
they which have come out of great tribulation, 
and have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are 
they before the throne of God, and serve him 
day and night in his temple. And he that sit- 
teth on the throne shall dwell among them. 
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor 
any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead 
them unto living fountains of waters, and God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 

Edward, Dear associates, girls and boys ! 
If this blessed Bible contains so many precious 
promises to children, ought we not to love and 
prize it ? 

All: O yes, Edward, we will; and we will 
bind it upon our hearts as a golden treasure. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 99 

Edward, And shall we not promise to these 
our beloved preachers, superintendents, teach- 
ers, parents, and friends, that we will try and be 
good children, and meet them in heaven ? 

All. O yes, we will, — we will. 

Edward. Beloved parents and friends ! be- 
fore I, with these my little associates, shall bid 
you adieu, permit me, affectionately, and with a 
warm heart, to ask, Who that is a friend to this 
blessed Bible can refrain from supporting an 
institution like this, whose primary design is to 
place this blessed book into the hands of every 
child, and to give those instructions which will 
make us wise unto salvation ! O, methinks I 
hear every father, mother, and friend say, I will 
support it with my prayers, money, and influ- 
ence ; while my little heart, with hundreds more, 
says. Amen. And, dear preachers, superintend- 
ents, teachers, and friei^ds, when you shall go 
home to heaven, may you hear the plaudit from 
the lips of our blessed Lord himself, saying, 
" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of 
these, ye have done it unto me, enter thou into 
the joy of thy Lord." W. K. 



100 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 



HYMN FOR AN ANNIVERSARY. 

How sweet to meet from year to year, 
Together here with one accord, 

With our thank offerings to appear 
In this the temple of the Lord ! 

Jesus, the once incarnate God, 

Hath taught our youthful feet the way ; 

He once the Jewish temple trod. 
His parents too thus led the way. 

Thus we are taught from life's young dawn. 

Upward in Jesus' steps to go. 
Took by the hand, and beckon'd on, 

To walk as Jesus walk'd below. 

Jesus, the fallen race to bless. 

Meekly the holy law obey'd. 
Gladly fulfill'd all righteousness. 

And thus was our exemplar made. 

How often through the year now pass'd, 
A favor'd, happy band, we've met. 

While Jesus, thou, our teacher, hast 
Before us thine example set ! 

O God ! what shall we render thee ? 

How praise the grace which we adore ? 
Our whole life service let it be, 

E'en now, henceforth, and evermore. 

P.: 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 101 

DIALOGUE ON MISSIONS. 

Laura, {closing her hook and rising.) Here, 
Georgiana, take this little book and read it ; I 
am sure you will be pleased with it ; I could 
not stop till I had read it through, it is so inte- 
resting. 

Georgiana. But, sister Laura, what is it about ? 
I should like to know that first. 

Laura. It tells about the good missionaries 
of the South Sea Islands, who carried the bless- 
ings of religion to the poor ignorant heathen, 
who worshiped gods of wood and stone. 

Georgiana. O, sister, tell us what mission- 
aries mean. You told us they went about doing 
good. What good do they do ? Why do the 
heathen call them Jesus Christ's men 1 Tell 
me, now, sister Laura. 

Laura. O Georgiana, how it fills my heart 
with love to think of those dear people who 
leave home and friends to do good to the souls 
of perishing men ! 

Harriet. My teacher tells me missionary has 
the same meaning as apostle, and I am sure 
the apostles were good. 

Laura. It does mean the same ; the apostles 
were Jesus Christ's missionaries, but our mis- 
sionaries are sent by the church. 



102 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

Harriet. O I see how it is : they are so call- 
ed because they are sent. Is that it ? 

Laura, Yes ; there are three words in He- 
brew, Greek, and Latin, which all mean sent. 
Jesus is called Shiloh, because God sent him 
to be the Saviour of the world. Jesus sent his 
disciples to teach the true religion; they are 
called apostles: and now those the church 
sends are called missionaries. 

Georgiana. Laura, why do they not go to all 
the dark places of the earth, shown on our mis- 
sionary map ? 

Harriet. I think, Georgiana, it is because they 
do not love sinners as Jesus Christ loved them ; 
if they did, they would go themselves, or give 
them their money, or, at least, give them their 
prayers. 

Laura. Yes, then they would be true mis- 
sionaries, for prayer and the heart are not the 
least, but the greatest, gift for this work of love. 
O that the field of the world were full of those 
who have given their hearts to the work ! 

Harriet. If it were, then the prophecy contain- 
ed in the second Psalm would be fulfilled : " I 
will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
and the uttermost part of the earth for thy pos- 
session." 

Laura. Even little children may do some- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 103 

thing in this great cause. Little rain drops help 
to fill the ocean. 

Harriet, O I should like to be a missionary, 
to tell all I have learned at Sunday school, and 
to bless some heathen child ! 

Laura. We are too young to go to heathen 
lands ; but there is work enough here, — for 
though that spot looks so bright on the map, I 
think I know where they might make some 

dark places. There is one, and that is . 

O how many men, women, and children, who 
never keep the sabbath, nor read the Bible, and 
never pray! Yes, and hundreds of children 
that never go to Sunday school. 

Harriet, That makes me think of the little 
hymn, 

" Parents and children, how they Hve, 
And how they perish too !" 

Georgiana. I think if they made such a map 

for , to show, by black spots, all the houses 

without Christians, it would be a mournful sight. 
O that every one would pause and think of that, 
and say, Is our home a black spot ? and do I 
make it so ? 

Harriet, 1 know, cousin Georgiana, how they 
might all be made bright — by the Bible, tracts, 
and preaching. O yes, for it is a blessed work. 
Let us be good scholars, that we may learn to 



104 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

be teachers and do good in our turn ; let us give 
our pennies for the missionary cause, and so be 
little missionaries at home. 

Laura. O but only look at the map, and see 
how many of those dark spots are without the 
true religion of the blessed Saviour. 

Georgiana, O how dreadful it looks — it is all 
over black ! 

HarrieU Sin makes it dark, Georgiana, and 
that is why the Saviour said men loved dark- 
ness better than light, because their deeds are 
evil. 

Georgiana, But there is a large bright spot, 
how beautiful it looks, shining out of the dark- 
ness ; I think we may say of it, in the words of 
the Bible, that the Sun of righteousness has 
risen upon it. 

Laura, O yes, Georgiana, that is our dear 
native land — ^land of gospel light, of freedom and 
religious liberty, where each may worship God 
under his own vine, with none to make him 
afraid. We have our own beloved ministers, 
and pay no tithes but the free-will offerings of 
the heart. 

Harriet, I think, indeed, that such should be 
thankfully remembered on every day of festivity. 

Our hearts should not forget to prize 
The freedom we enjoy ; 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 105 

Columbia's sons should grateful rise, 
And praise their breath employ. 

Georgiana. That's true: O how many are 
ignorant of their mercies, and how many are 
thankless ! O that they might know the truth, 
then they would be free indeed ; for my part, 

I thank the goodness and the grace 
That on my birth have smiled ; 

And made me in a Christian land, 
A highly favor'd child. 

Harriet, Of all people, we should try to do 
good to others. 

Georgiana. So we should : and how beauti- 
ful it would be if we could all be called Jesus 
Christ's children, because we try to do good ! 

Harriet, But, Georgiana, I will tell you what 
else we may do, we may ask other children to 
come to Sunday school, and then there would 
not be so many dark minds. Why should we 
not do it ? 

" Shall we whose souls are lighted. 
The lamp of life deny ?" 

Georgiana. That is the sweet missionary 
hymn, " From Greenland's icy mountain ;" let us 
sing those verses, and it may warm the hearts 
of us all with a desire to do something in such 
a blessed work. 



106 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

Laura. That we may do ; but let us all the 
while think how much missionary work is yet 
to be done, to lighten all the dark places of . 

(They sing and pass out.) 



HYMN. 

THE WORD OF GOD. 

Light from the eternal hills 

Thou Lamp of life divine ! 
'River of God ! of many rills, 

Reaching to all mankind. 

{Chorus.) Praise ye the Lord! 

Laden with precious freight, 

Fresh from the court above, 
Alike to all, both small emd great, 

Thy embassy of love. 

Praise, &c. 

Gold is a thing of naught, 

And rubies nothing worth. 
Compared with treasures thou hast brought 

To fallen sons of earth. 

Praise, &c. 

Thou message from the skies, 

Ray for the rayless heart, 
Thou fount of wisdom for the wise, 

A balm for all thou art. 

Praise, &c. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 107 

Man of our counsel, thou, 
Blessings untold rejoice 
The heart of those who meekly bow 
To listen to thy voice. 

Praise, &c. 

P.P. 



AN ADDRESS ON PHILANTHROPY. 

My subject is philanthropy. Not that philan- 
thropy which, though produced by a love of our 
country, boils, and bubbles, and foams in the 
breasts of us young republicans, until it rises in 
a scum of spurious patriotism, and expends 
itself in unmeaning bravadoes on a fourth of 
July, in boastful assertions of the superiority 
of our own land and nation, and senseless de- 
fiances of all others. 

Neither does the philanthropy of which I 
design to speak confine itself to our own family 
circle, or our own immediate friends, or our 
own near neighbors : by no means. It em- 
braces all our neighbors, wherever they may 
be found. And here the question naturally oc- 
curs, " Who are our neighbors?" and those, too, 
let it be recollected, whom we are commanded 
to love as ourselves. Shall we confine our- 
selves, in this inquiry, to the square, or street, 



108 SUNDAY SCHOOI, RECITER. 

or village, in which we live ? I apprehend not. 
Shall we extend it to the utmost limits of the 
county or city of our habitation ? That will not 
answer. What number of degrees of latitude 
and longitude, then, may the term be assumed 
to cover ? what shall be the metes and bounds, 
within whose borders we are to consider the 
dwellers as our neighbors ? It may be feared 
that few ask themselves this question in the 
right spirit ; for it is evident that, according as 
we understand the term, in a more or less re- 
strained sense, must be the necessary variations 
which flow from that relation. 

Our blessed Saviour, in order to rectify any 
partial and pernicious mistake in this matter, 
and to place our duty at once upon its true 
bottom of philanthropy and universal kindness, 
makes answer to the question under considera- 
tion, not by any far-fetched refinement, which 
might be calculated to silence rather than con- 
vince the inquirer, but by a direct appeal to 
human nature, in the well-known instance he 
relates of a man falling among thieves : at the 
close of this engaging account, he appeals to 
the man's own heart in the following words : 
" Which, now, of these three was neighbor to 
him who fell among thieves ?" and, instead of 
drawing the inference himself, left the inquirer 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 109 

to decide in favor of so noble a principle, so 
evidently founded on mercy. 

Let us try to apply this to ourselves on the 
present occasion : Are our parents, our relatives, 
our families, and friends, already awakened to 
the importance of Sunday schools and tem- 
perance societies ? are v^e enjoying the means 
of improvement in every good word and work af- 
forded by the one ? are we living secure under the 
banner of teetotalism, through the influence of 
the other ? If so, " happy are we." But let us 
look into the world at large. How many neigh- 
bors shall we there see less highly favored? 
How many children spending their sabbaths 
in ignorance, and idleness, and vice ? How 
many immortal spirits plunging daily down to 
a drunkard's hell ? 

Shall we, then, because these evils do not 
come nigh our dwellings, withhold our hands 
in these philanthropic efforts ? Shall we not 
rather by our anniversaries, our celebrations, 
our speeches, by every other means that love 
and mercy can devise, endeavor to uphold, and 
dignify, and sustain, these glorious institutions ? 

Again, we may be told there are none left in 
all our borders requiring to be brought in. Then 
must we seek them elsewhere. Trust me, they 
can be found. If we cannot go out ourselv^es, 



110 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

we can assist to sustain, support, and hold up 
the hands of those who can and will consider 
the case of the friendless orphan — the poor, 
destitute, neglected orphan, — 

Known to no human love — no human care ; 
The friendless, homeless object of despair ; , 
Ere the poor mother bade that child adieu, 
The big tear mingling with the milk he drew, 
Gave the sad presage of his future years, 
The child of misery, baptized in tears. 

I pray you keep your imagination fixed on 
this orphan. A few rags to cover his poor body, 
and a scanty allowance of food to keep life in it, 
he may perhaps procure, by performing tasks un- 
suited to his tender years ; but who shall attend 
to the wants of his immortal soul 1 There he 
is in all his helplessness and all his wretch- 
edness ! ignorance darkens his mind ; want 
sharpens his appetites ; while the enemy of God 
and man trains him to deeds of darkness and 
of crime. Now lead him to the sabbath school 
— once within its hallowed precincts, once im- 
bued with the spirit it inculcates, and the orphan 
is safe. 

Behold yon wo-worn woman ! she has reared 
one child only out of many ; until lately he has 
promised to repay her toiling days, her sleep- 
less nights, by his love and filial obedience : 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. Ill 

but her husband is intemperate, and she sees, 
with anguish inexpressible, that this, her only 
child, is but too likely to follow his father's 
example. 'Tis the boy's pleasure, in spite of all 
her care, to be ragged, and dirty, and squalid ; 
to hang about engine-houses, and nine-pin alleys, 
and tavern doors, and to hear and repeat vile 
expressions, and to learn and repeat every day 
some new and profane oath, with which he 
may agonize the ear of his poor mother. She 
has no assistance from her brutal husband in 
correcting these habits, and her own influence 
is gone. There he is, lovers of virtue, hearts 
of humanity ! there he is. There he is, sabbath- 
school teacher ! Rush upon him. Your high 
character, which casts a halo around you un- 
known to yourself ; your importunate entreaties 
— your gentle violence — your mild persuasions, 
must and will prevail. You shall bear him 
away to the Sunday school, and you shall pray 
for him as Elijah did for the son of the widow 
of Zareptha, " O Lord, my God, let this child's 
right mind come unto him again ;" peradventure 
the Lord will hearken to your cry, and you 
shall take the child, and bring him, and deliver 
him to his mother, and say as Elijah did, " See, 
thy son liveth." 

W. R. 



112 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 



THE SONG OF MEN AND ANGELS. 

Happy angels ! still ye dwell 

In yon worlds of glory, 
And in joyous anthem swell 

Love's redeeming story. 
Shining multitudes ! ye came 
Our Redeemer to proclaim ; 
Still your song is just the same, 

Glory, glory, glory. 

Since that hour, babes, men, and sires 

Join the strain of glory, 
Tune their harps, with angel choirs. 

To love's wondrous story ; 
Join with seraphs in their mirth. 
See the way from heaven to earth 
Open'd by the Saviour's birth. 

Glory, glory, glory. 

Angels, sing again with man, 

Swell our strain of glory ; 
Shout with us the wondrous plan. 

Love's redeeming story. 
Soon our stay on earth shall fail, 
Soon shall drop the mortal veil, 
Then in song and voice we'll hail, 

Glory, glory, glory. 

Jesus Christ! the theme ^ the song; 

Then no more the stranger, 
Welcom'd by the shining throng, 

In lone Bethlehem's mansrer. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 113 

Robed in peerless majesty, — 
Soon our eyes shall also see, 
Then we'll cry, "■ 'Tis He, 'tis He, 
Glory, glory, glory « P. P. 



DIALOGUE ON SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 

Mary. Eliza, I am somewhat surprised — 
agreeably so — to see you at Sunday school to- 
day. I heard some of the girls say you were 
not coming any more. I was afraid you had 
become weary in well doing, 

Eliza, True, Mary, I had thought of stopping, 
as I did not see much use in my coming any 
longer ; but ma advised me, this morning, not 
to leave off yet. That was the reason of my 
coming to-day. I think that you and I are too 
large to go to such schools : don't you think 
so ? 

M. Don't I think so 1 No, by no means. We 
will not be too large for scholars till we are able 
to teach a class. I mean, by God's help, to 
continue as a pupil till I am qualified to take 
charge of a small class. I want to spend ray 
life in this excellent cause. 

' E. Why, Mary, a Sunday-school scholar 

from six to seventeen or eighteen years of age ! 

That is staying at school too long. When I get 

8 



114 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

to be a young woman, I wish to spend my sab- 
baths more agreeably than you propose. 

M. More agreeably, Eliza ! how you talk ! 
What can be more agreeable than to learn the 
road to heaven, and how to shun the paths of 
vice ? I fear, my dear Eliza, your notions about 
the sources of true happiness are very imper- 
fect. You need a little gospel eye salve, it 
seems to me, to show you where that desirable 
commodity is to be obtained. It is a plant that 
don't grow in every soil. It is of celestial ori- 
gin, and flourishes best beneath the Saviour's 
cross. 

j^. VV^hy, Mary, you are becoming quite pious ; 
you have been reading sermons, I judge. Say 
what 3yOu will about true happiness, and other 
good things of that sort, I am free to say that I 
am tired of being for ever tied down to cate- 
chisms and Sunday-school hymn books : I think 
I understand the plan of salvation just as well 
as if I were to attend Sunday school till dooms- 
day. 

M. Perhaps you do ; yet I think you are not 
so perfect in your theoretical knowledge, that 
you could not improve ; and as to experimental 
knowledge — the best part of the matter — I fear 
that neither you nor I have any. And where b 
a better place to obtain this than the sabbat) 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 115 

school ? I have heard of a great many of the 
larger scholars experiencing religion at Sunday- 
school prayer meetings. 

E. It is a great blessing, I must confess, my 
dear Mary, to have a new heart ; I hope to ex- 
perience that blessing one of these days. And 
I mean to seek it. But my uncle, who is a very 
learned man, says I had better complete my 
education first, and that I will be less likely to 
backslide, if I put off joining the church till 
then. 

ill. Eliza, that sort of advice is very danger- 
ous ; a trick of Satan to ensnare the souls of 
youth. Our preacher says, and I believe he 
is correct, that nearly all the children that go 
to Sunday school are old enough to seek and 
serve the Lord ; and that the earlier they do 
so, the better it will be, as well as the easier 
for themselves. 

E. I have also heard some very respectable 
persons say that the minds of young people are 
often filled, in Sunday school, with ideas about 
religion that are incorrect ; and that it would be 
better for them not to fix their course in so im- 
portant a matter till they are old enough to decide 
properly for themselves. 

M. That too, Eliza, is more nice than wise, 
besides being contrary to Scripture. The wisest 



116 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

of men has said, " Remember now thy Creator 
in the days of thy youth." My father often tells 
me, and I have no doubt he is right, that we 
cannot begin to save our souls at too early an 
age. Our beloved minister, too, you know, 
often says that nearly all persons who embrace 
religion, do so before they are twenty -one years 
of age. 

E. But, Mary, could not our parents teach 
us at home ? Nearly everything my teacher 
tells me, I have heard my father or the minister 
say before. Father reads a chapter in the Bi- 
ble, and prays before the family every day : 
besides, he sometimes gives us such long talks 
on the subject, that we are glad when he is 
done. It appears to me that this is enough 
without staying a dozen years in sabbath school ; 
any how, it is enough to suit me. 

M. Really, Eliza, your father must be a very 
good man. Still, would a little aid from a faith- 
ful Sunday-school teacher come amiss even to 
him ? I'll venture he is very glad of all such 
aid. The best of books, you know, recommends 
" line upon line, and precept upon precept, here 
a little, and there a little." Besides, the parents 
of many children are not religious, and are un- 
prepared to give them religious instruction. It 
is to be feared, also, that many professors of re- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 117 

ligion do not pray before their families. Your 
objections, Eliza, to Sunday schools seem very 
light when weighed in the balances of the sanc- 
tuary. Besides, I think that they spring from 
the heart rather than from the head. 

E. I allow, Mar}% that such schools are very 
good for children ; but I have doubts, as I said 
before, whether girls, as large as you and I, 
should attend them. I think them, also, very 
excellent for poor people, who cannot afford to 
send their children to week-day schools. 

M. There it is ! murder will out, as they say. 
Had you not better confess at once, my dear 
Eliza, that you are rather above going to these 
places ; that you think it rather a small busi- 
ness for a young lady of a genteel family to 
mingle with poor children, or for a young lady, 
like yourself, to recite from the Testament and 
catechism. We should not forget that the Bible 
says, " Pride goeth before destruction, and a 
haughty spirit before a fall." 

E. Pray, IMary, don't forget that the good 
book, from which you quote so much, says, 
" Judge not, that ye be not judged." I think I 
do not feel above going to Smiday school. It 
is a place where I have received many and 
great benefits, of which, in my serious moments, 
I am very mindful. But having observed many 



118 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

of the larger girls leaving of late, I thought I 
might do so too, as I have been in the school a 
long time. But, since listening to your remarks, 
I have come to the conclusion that it can do me 
no hurt, if it should do me no good, to remain a 
year or two longer ; and I think I will do so. 

D. T. L. 



CHILDREN'S HYMN. 

A YOUTHFUL company we meet, 
Om^ songs of praises to repeat, 
And pay our homage at the feet 
Of Jesus Christ, the children's friend. 

He bids us come, — and lo ! we stand 
As volunteers, a youthful band — 
We come, we come, at his command, 
To be his faithful followers. 

'* Give me thy heart," we hear him say; 
Lord, we thy mandate will obey ; — 
We come ! to tread the narrow way, 
A youthful army for the Lord. 

We wait not till time's chilling flight 
Hath pall'd our youthful spirits' might ; 
No ! no ! — we come, and now unite 
To join the soldiery of heaven. 

Now, now, ere our resolve should fail, 
For luring wiles will us assail. 
We come ! we come ! ere they prevail, 
To take the armor of thy word. 



^SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER.. 119 

'Tis here we learn these arms to bear: 

Train'd aud disciplined here with care, 

We come ! an-ay'd in these we'll dare 

To swell the victor's triumph song. 

Here, here may many an army rise, 
Well skiird in warfare for the skies, 
And come with us to take the prize 
Of life eternal in the heavens. 

Phebe Palmer. 



A DIALOGUE ON THE SUBJECT OF SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL CELEBRATIONS. 

William. How say you, Edmund; shall we 
be able to sustain the part allotted to us on 
this occasion, and hold the discourse proposed 
to us before this large assemblage of our 
friends ? 

Edmund. My courage had well nigh failed 
when I first saw how numerous were our 
hearers; but now that I look around me, and 
perceive the attentive silence which prevails, 
the interest manifested, and the encouraging 
looks bestowed on us, I feel determined to let 
no feeling but that of gratitude for such favor, 
and confidence in the cause in which we are 
engaged, inspire me on the present occasion. 

W. Your feelings, my friend, are my own ; 
and that we may not lose a moment so propitious. 



120 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

let us proceed at once to the discussion of the 
subject of our meeting. 

JE. Agreed. The Sunday school is the sub- 
ject, of course. 

W. Not altogether, if I understand the object 
of this day's proceedings. Though the Sunday 
school is certainly one of the great means, yet 
the end is our improvement in religious feelings 
and principles. Now, if it be admitted (as it 
must be) that of all imaginable things religion 
must be the best, because it makes us like God, 
and conducts us to the enjoyment of him ; the 
question, as regards the propriety of Sunday- 
school anniversaries, and celebrations like the 
present, resolves itself into a very small com- 
pass : have they this plain tendenpy of drawing 
us toward God, and fitting us for the enjoyment 
of his presence 1 

E. There are so many marks by which this 
tendency can be tested, that there need be no 
diversity of opinion on the subject. Do the 
scene, the circumstances by which we are sur- 
rounded, and the exercises in which we engage, 
naturally produce feelings of veneration and 
respect for the worship of God? and do our 
thoughts on such occasions readily advert to 
our dependence on God, and our accountability 
to him ? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 121 

W. You are certainly right. And I have 
thought, that although we might not be able for 
a whole day to confine our thoughts exclusively 
to such subjects, yet if on such an occasion as 
this we find that the subject of religion is of 
itself disagreeable ; if we have no inclination to 
think of it ourselves, or to hear others speak of 
it, we have great reason to suspect that our 
hearts are not right before God. 

E. Nothing can be more plain. The child 
who is not impressed with the importance of 
entering into the spirit of this meeting ; whose 
mind is not delightfully exercised in contem- 
plating that spirit of active philanthropy, which 
has induced so many to lay aside the arduous 
and necessary labors in which they were en- 
gaged, and provide for us this entertainment, 
this real " feast of reason and this flow of soul," 
has, as yet, drunk in nothing of that pure stream 
of love to God and good will to man, which 
conceived and organized the plan of our meet- 
ing. If, on the other hand, we feel our hearts 
warmed by a glow of gratitude ; if we determine 
to give respectful heed to all we hear and see, 
as things that will be profitable for instruction 
in righteousness, that we may become men of 
God, perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all 
good works, we may be certain that this cele- 



122 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

bration has been advisable and desirable, and 
that the remembrance of it will habitually dis- 
pose our hearts for the best and most useful 
thoughts, and fit us for the noblest entertain- 
ments which the imagination can conceive. 

W. My friend, you have decided the question 
by one observation. You say it will dispose our 
hearts to the best and most useful thoughts. 
This alone is proof positive in favor of this 
meeting ; for, if it be true, that it is of as great 
importance to take heed what thoughts we enter- 
tain, as what company we keep, inasmuch as 
they have the same effect, then, I say, I have 
thought more of the objects of the Sunday school 
since this celebration has been in question, than 
1 ever did in all my life before. 

E. What, then, is the conclusion of the whole 
matter ? Why, that " whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things 
are of good report," may be heard and learned 
at the Sunday school ; and Sunday-school cele- 
brations, if rightly conducted, may conduce to 
the same ends. 

W. {addressing the audience.) If there be any 
virtue, and any praise, let us think of these 
things. W. R. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 123 

THE BIBLE. 

" Thy word have I hid in ray heart." — David. 

Blessed Bible ! how I love it ! 

How it cloth my bosom cheer ! 
What hath earth like this to covet? 

O what stores of wealth are here ! 

Man was lost, and doom'd to sorrow, 

Not one ray of light or bhss 
Could he from eai'th's treasm'es borrow, 

Till his way was cheer'd by this. 

Yes ! I'll to my bosom T)ress thee. 
Precious Word, I'll hide thee here ! 

Sure my very heart will bless thee, 
For thou ever say'st, *'* Good cheer!" 

Speali, poor heart, and tell thy pond'rings. 

Tell how far thy rovings led, 
When this book brought back thy wand'rings, 

Speaking life as from the dead. 

Yes ! sweet Bible ! I will hide thee 

Deep — yes ! deeper in this heart ! 
Thou through all my life wilt guide me, 

And in death we will not part : — 

Part in death ? — no ! never ! never ! 

Through death^s vale I'll lean on thee ; 
Then in worlds above, for ever. 

Sweeter still thv truths shall be. 



124 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

DIALOGUE ON SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 

Samuel. Hannah ! I should like to have a 
little conversation v^ith you on the subject of 
our sabbath school. 

Hannah. Well, Samuel, I shall be very glad 
to converse with you upon such an interesting 
topic ; for I think all Sunday-school children 
should feel concerned on that subject. 

S. Yes ; they certainly should : if for no 
other reason, we should from the fact, that the 
teachers take such a deep interest in promoting 
our welfare. 

H. As you mention the interest taken by our 
teachers in the prosperity of the school, let me 
say I have thought there is a great degree of 
gratitude due them for their attention to us. 

S. Hannah, I am very forcibly impressed 
with the truth of your observation ; and if we 
would only reflect for a moment upon it, I think 
our conduct would be very different from what 
it has been. 

H. Yes ; for many of the children are put 
under the instruction of teachers upon whom 
they have no personal claims whatever, and 
who never knew the scholars until placed by the 
superintendent in their classes. Yet it appears 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 125 

to afford the teachers great pleasure to impart 
instruction to such. 

S. Well, Hannah, what salary do the teachers 
get ? You know some of them attend e very- 
Sunday ; and I have heard them say that they 
deprive themselves of many privileges and 
enjoyments, for the purpose of attending the 
school. Can you tell me who pays them ? 

H. Why, Samuel, did you ever hear of our 
teachers receiving any compensation for their 
services ? I believe it is true that Robert Raikes, 
the founder of the Sunday-school system, when 
he first commenced operations, paid the teachers 
employed in his school ; but soon persons were 
found who were willing to devote themselves to 
the work because of the moral good likely to 
be effected. 

S. Why, is not that strange ? You say, then, 
that our teachers are not paid. Some of them 
have been in the school, almost every Sunday, 
for ten or fifteen years ; and one might suppose 
they would have become tired of it by this time. 

H. It does seem strange to worldly minds 
that they continue so long; for I sometimes 
hear them say that they are very much dis- 
couraged, and are almost ready to give it up ; 
yet they are generally found in their places the 
following Sunday. 



126 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

S. Hannah, I should think they would be 
relieved sometimes by other persons coming 
in to take their places ; but since I have re- 
flected upon itj I remember that out of all the 
young persons in this tov^m we never see a 
dozen of them in the school in a whole year, 
except the regular teachers » 

H. But, Samuel, you said young persons 
seldom visit us ; pray do older persons visit the 
school much oftener ? There are numbers of 
children attached to our school, and the most of 
them have parents, and you might suppose they 
would come once or twice a month to see how 
we are getting on. Would you not ? 

S. Certainly ; it appears to me they ought to 
take pleasure in visiting the school, as it would 
show that they were not perfectly indifferent to 
its success ; and it would be some source of 
encouragement to the teachers to believe that 
their efforts to benefit the children were appre- 
ciated by their parents. 

H. I think it would meet the hearty approval 
of teachers and scholars, if, before taking your 
seat, you would give the ladies and gentlemen 
present an invitation to call and see us as often 
as their other engagements allow. 

>S'. {facing the congregation.) Ladies and gen- 
tlemen, as it has been suggested, allow me to 



SUXDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 127 

say to you, that our school is in operation every 
Sunday morning and afternoon, and that it will 
afford us a great degree of pleasure to see as 
many of you as can make it convenient in 
attendance. We would, especially, invite the 
presence of those parents who have children in 
the school ; it will encourage the teachers as 
well as the scholars ; and, with the approbation 
of the teachers, I will invite all young persons 
present to attach themselves to the school, either 
as teachers or scholars ; come with us, and we 
will do you good. 



HYMN— SABBATH MORNING. 

When sabbath's sacred morning light 

Begins on earth to dawn, 
We'll wake with eyes all sparkling bright, 
And bid dull sloth begone. 

Then haste to the school away, 

And keep this sacred day ; 

Haste away, yes, haste away, 

And keep this sacred day. 

The tuneful birds in concert meet, 

And carol sweet their lays, 
In nature's temple they repeat 

Their great Creator's praise. 

Then liable, &c. 



128 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

From vallej; field, and mountain air, 
They pour their warbling strains, 

And in one chorus loud declare, 
That God for ever reigns. 

Then haste, &c. 

Then in the temple of the Lord, 

That consecrated place, 
We'll listen to God's holy word, 

And seek his pardoning grace. 

Then haste, &c. 

There, with united heart and voice, 

Our songs to God we'll raise. 
While millions more with us rejoice. 
And join in prayer and praise. 

Then haste, &c. 

D. D. 



DIALOGUE ON TEMPERANCE, 

Spoken at the anniversary of the Foundry Sabbath 
School, Washingto7i, July 4, 1845. 

George. William, were you at the juvenile 
temperance meeting last evening ? We had a 

great time of it. Mr. made us a fine 

speech. The way he used up the rum-sellers 
was a caution. 

William, No ; I didn't go. I like temperance 
very well, so does father too ; but he and I both 
think that there is too much fuss made on the 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 129 

subject now-a-days. He thinks boys have no 
business at such meetings. He says that they 
had better be at home reading a good book, or 
running on errands for their parents. 

G. Well, "every one to his notion." For 
my part, I think it has done me good to go to 
temperance meetings ; I hate rum worse, and 
pity rum-sellers and rum-drinkers more than I 
did before. Every temperance speech I hear 
makes me love the glorious cause more than 
ever. 

W. George, that may all be. I too pity rum- 
sellers and tipplers, because I have seen so many 
mothers and children without victuals, and even 
decent clothes, because father drank the stuff ; 
yet I feel all this without running off to tempe- 
rance meetings every day or two. Samuel, do 
you go to such gatherings ? 

Samuel, Yes, to be sure I do. I go the whole 
figure in temperance matters ; there is no half- 
way business with me in such things : I enlisted 
in the cold-water army as an effective soldier, 
and for life. I rather guess if you had been at 
our meeting last night, and heard me join in the 
temperance songs, you would have thought me 
a full-blooded teetotaller. So long as old Mr. 
Rednose, who lives near our house, whips his 
wife, and turns his children out of doors when- 
9 



130 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 

ever he comes home drimk, so long I intend to 
go to temperance meetings, if father will permit 
me to do so. 

G. That's all well said, Samuel : I see we 
are two against one, and the facts all on our 
side. I think William will be -glad to back out 
soon, and come to our meetings. He means 
well, and wishes us God speed, I know ; but 
he seems to be in a thick fog about the good 
done by our meetings, 

S. Yes, George ; he, and many other boys I 
have talked with, are behind the times in the 
matter. They don't seem to understand that 
union and action are necessary to combat, with 
success, the armies of King Alcohol. Th^y 
forget that we who are now boys will soon be 
men, and have to take our father's places in 
society ; also, that we are now forming the ha- 
bits which will govern us when we become 
men. They forget, too, that when we become 
young men the tempting bowl will be urged 
upon us by our acquaintances, and that we will 
be likely to drink of it unless we learn, while 
boys, to fear and to loathe it. 

G. Well done, Samuel, give me your hand, 
(taking his hand accordingly.) That was a 
great speech. I think you have confounded 
William now, and that there will be no need of 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 131 

my saying anything more. William, can you 
answer Samuel's last speech ? 

W. I must confess, boys, there is much truth 
in what you have said, and that it is hard to 
answer all your arguments ; but I have another 
strong objection to these meetings, which I have 
not stated yet. 

G. Pray, what is it ? 

W. It is this. The pledge, which the boys 
are asked to sign, not only forbids their drinking 
distilled liquors, which is all proper enough, but 
it don't allow them to taste a little wine, or even 
beer. Isn't that getting over righteous, and 
wiser than the Bible ? Does the Lord demand 
so much self-denial of children ? Why does he 
make the grapes and apples grow so plentifullyj 
if we are not allowed to drink the juice ? 

G. That is an objection very often made. 
Most persons dislike dreadfully to give up their 
wine, beer, &c. Total-abstinence men don't 
pretend that the Bible makes it a positive sin to 
drink these beverages ; but they argue that it 
does forbid us to do anything whereby our bro- 
ther is caused to offend, or is made weak. 
They say also, that while persons use those 
beverages, they learn to love gin, brandy, &c., 
and thus fall into danger of becoming drunkards. 
For these reasons they consider it prudent and 



132 SUNDAY SCHOOl RECITER. 

expedient to lay aside the use of wine, cider, 
and beer. 

S. All you have just said, George, is very 
true. You talk as correctly as a book. How 
often do we hear of young men becoming sots, 
from having first learned to drink wine and beer ! 
What good boy, that wishes to be useful in his 
day and generation, would not be willing to deny 
himself these indulgences, even if they are not 
positively forbidden in the Bible, when he sees 
how much evil they cause ? Who can fully de- 
scribe the great evils of dram-drinking? How 
many kind mothers have been made miserable 
widows by the curse of a drunken husband 1 
How many fine little boys and girls have been 
clothed in rags by this cause ? How many 
quarrels, fights, and murders have been caused 
by rum ? My soul shudders when I think of 
these things ! 

W. 1 begin to see, boys, that you are right, 
and that I have been somewhat insensible to 
the merits of the temperance cause, as well as 
too inactive. I confess that you have overcome 
some of my strongest objections : I mean to try 
to persuade father to let me go to your next meet- 
ing, and I think he will. I know he thinks rum- 
selling, as well as rum-drinking, a very mean 
business; and that he never drinks the stuff 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 133 

himself. I have often remarked to mother, how 
bad off we would be if father were to take to 
drinking ; and how grateful to our heavenly 
Father we should be that he is a temperate man. 
Since listening to your remarks I have become 
convinced that all, whether young or old, who 
wish to spread the blessings of temperance, 
should sign the total-abstinence pledge, and en- 
courage temperance meetings by their presence. 



CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION. 

See the rising generation 
Come witli joyous exultation, 
And with shouts of acclamation, 
Christmas day to celebrate. 
What a happy meeting, 
While each other greetiag, 
And sweet songs repeating ; 
While our hearts with joy dilate. 

In our school we are united, 
With iastmction we're delighted, 
To the Saviour we're invited, 
And the Bible is om' rule. 

In our hearts we bless it, 
To our bosoms press it, 
And our lips caress it, 
'Tis our guide in sabbath school. 

We ai'e children of the nation, 
B'air Columbia is our station, 



134 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

And the Bible 's our foundation, 
In this free and happy land. 

We're from pilgrim fathers, 
And of Christian mothers. 
Like a band of brothers, 
We're united heart and hand. 

We behold with admiration, 
Our glorious declaration, 
And we fear no usurpation. 
We're a firm, united band. 

And there's none shall sever 
Native hearts, no, never. 
We are one for ever. 
And on freedom's rock we stand. 



D. D. 



DIALOGUE ON DANCING, 

Spoken at the exhibition of the Foundry Sabbath 
School, Washington City, July 4, 1845. 

Mary, Eliza, I am very glad to meet you. 
I have a very particular subject that I wish to 
talk with you about. 

Eliza. What is it, Mary ? If it is one I know 
anything about, I will be pleased to converse 
with you ; but, as you are older than I am, you 
cannot expect me to instruct you. If it relates 
to any of our Sunday-school matters, you had 
better talk with one of the teachers. 

M, I should not like, Eliza, to consult my 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 135 

teacher in the case, she is so very religious. I 
fear she would throw cold water on the whole 
affair, I prefer that she should know nothing 
about the matter till she finds it out in some 
other way. When people have made up their 
minds to a thing, you know they don't like to be 
opposed, 

E, Mary, I am glad to hear so good a cha- 
racter of your teacher. Would that all Sunday- 
school teachers were what you pronounce yours 
to be — verf/ religious ; as the example set us by 
such teachers makes us willing to listen to what 
they tell us. But, Mary, I fancy your project 
is not a safe one, as you fear to have your pious 
Sunday-school instructor know anything about 
it. I fear I cannot say anything in favor of it ; 
but I can tell better when I hear what it is. So 
speak on. 

M. Don't be too fast^ Eliza, Good judges, I 
have heard it rema,|^ked, take time to consider 
before giving their opinions. There is no harm 
in what I propose to do ; it is merely to go to 
dancing school a quarter. Father says I may ; 
and when mother objects, he says that David, 
one of the best men that ever lived, danced when 
worshiping the Lord. Here is Sarah : I'll ven- 
ture she is not so bigoted as to say dancing is 
wrong. 



1S6 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

Sarah. Pm afraid, Mary, you appeal to an 
unfavorable judge. Some of my acquaintances 
have often asked me to go with them to dancing 
school, and said there was no harm in doing so ; 
but I have always refused, as I thought it would 
be wrong, and feared if I went once I might 
desire to go again. Methodists and their chil- 
dren live too much like the fashionable world 
already, without kicking up their heels at ball- 
rooms. 

E, That's right, Sarah ; I am glad to see you 
so candid. You will be of great assistance to 
me, I am sure, in persuading Mary to change 
her mind. I didn't think so good a girl as Ma- 
ry, and one who has been so long in the Sun- 
day school, would wish to go to such a place. 

M, Come, come, girls, you talk too much like 
preachers : you are too sanctimonious entirely — 
too gloomy in your notions by far. Some of the 
best people I know send tHeir children to danc- 
ing school, and went themselves when children. 
What harm is there in a little innocent recrea- 
tion, especially when it benefits our health, im- 
proves our manners, and is not contrary to Scrip- 
ture ? 

E, I think, Sarah, Mary has now brought 
forward all the arguments she can in favor of 
what she calls an innocent recreation. You 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 137 

can easily answer them all. She is, I am sorry 
to perceive, fast drinking in the spirit of the 
world. 

S. Eliza, I have never studied logic, and 
make no pretensions to smartness ; yet I think 
I can prove from experience, as well as Scrip- 
ture, that Mary is wrong in her notions. She 
says the exercise of dancing improves the health ; 
but, pray, are there not other kinds of exercise 
that will answer for that purpose ? Will not 
walking, jumping the rope, throwing the hoop, 
&c., exercise the limbs of young persons just 
as well as cutting pigeon wings, or waltzing in 
a crowded room ? As to Mary's statement, that 
girls who attend such schools behave prettier 
than others, I don't believe a word of it. Caro- 
line Sherwood, Jane Watson, and many other 
accomplished young ladies of my acquaintance, 
and whose behavior too is as pretty as that of 
any misses I ever knew, never saw the inside 
of a dancing school. 

E. I agree with you, Sarah, in all you have 
said ; you have so clearly shown that Mary's 
ideas are wrong, that I begin to pity her situa- 
tion. 

M. The old saying is, " Brag is a good dog, 
but Holdfast is better." I have not given all 
my reasons yet : Fve got the Bible on my side, 



138 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

and feel that I am right in spite of all your boast- 
ing. Besides, many of the most respectable 
people speak in favor of sending girls and boys 
to dancing school. 

E. You judge of people's respectability, 
Mary, I fear, by the figure they cut in society. 
The most respectable people, in my judgment, 
are those that strive hardest to love and serve 
God. You don't hear such persons speak well 
of dancing schools. 

S. No, no, I am sure she doesn't. That was 
a good idea, Eliza. Well done for you. Eliza, 
Mary says a great deal about innocent recrea- 
tion. Can't children obtain enough enjoyment 
of this kind without resorting to dancing schools 
and ball-rooms ? I am sure they can. But I 
have heard that there is a great deal of pride 
and jealousy manifested at such places. That 
does not look like innocent mirth. 

E, There is another capital hit — another nail 
in a sure place. Sarah, why didn't you ask 
Mary if she ever heard of a person's seeking or 
obtaining a new heart, or any other spiritual 
blessing, at a ball-room ? 

M, Girls, I must confess there is a good deal 
of truth in what you say ; but can you prove that 
dancing is forbidden in the Bible ? Did David 
sin when he danced ? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 139 

S. I suppose, Mary, there is no harm in the 
mere act of dancing ; but the practice is deemed 
sinful on account of the follies and vices with 
which it is associated now-a-days. There may 
be no verse of Scripture directly forbidding the 
practice, but it is clear that dancing, as now 
practiced, is contrary to the whole spirit of reli- 
gion. People never dance now to worship the 
Lord, as David did, unless it be among the 
Shaking Quakers : besides, do you think David 
ever went to a dancing school ? 

E. Well, Mary, I think you will find it diffi- 
cult to answer that question. Sarah, it seems 
to me, has clearly shown that you are wrong in 
the matter, out and out. Sarah is a better rea- 
soner than I thought she was. 

M. What you have said, girls, has, I must 
confess, made me doubt whether I am right; 
and, as I think it wrong to indulge in practices 
of a doubtful character, I think I will not go to 
dancing school. 



THE STAR IN THE EAST. 

James. Now, Hemy, tell me of the star, 

The star of Bethlehera ! 
Where did the wise men see that star ? 

How did it look to them ? 



140 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

How did it shine, and rise, and set? 

How did it hang on high ? 
And tell me how they knew that star 

From others in the sky. 

Henry. They knew it by its brighter light, 

And its position there ; 
For in the clear, blue firmament, 

It was the loveliest far. 

And when upon the mountain top 

It pour'd its golden glow, 
They took it for a certain sign 

That they that way must go. 

It flash'd its light adown the vale, 

It sparkled on the rill ; 
It glisten'd on the flinty rock. 

It slept upon the hill. 

And wheresoever its light was shed, 
On town, on tower, or wild, 

They knew it was the road that led 
To find '' the holy child." 

And now the great Jerusalem 
Appear'd before their sight, 

And Herod and the people heard 
Their ^^ question^ ^ with affright. 

But still the wise men journey'd on 

Beneath the sacred star, 
And when it came to Bethlehem, 

Behold, it rested there. 

It rested o'er a stable door. 
For in a manger laid, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 141 

They found the child all meek and mild, 
( And there their offerings made. 

J. But where, O Henry^ is that star ? 

The star of Bethlehem now? 
Does it still throw its golden glow 

Upon the mountain's brow ? 

Or does it flash adown the vale, 

Or glimmer on the rill ? 
Or glisten on the flint}^ rock, 

Or sleep upon the hill ? 

H. Not to our out^vaixl eye, my fi-iend: 

Yet does it never set ; 
For bright within the hearts of men 

That star is beaming yet= 

It beams upon the mountain top, 
Where monarchs own its sway; 

Adown the vale, where humble souls 
Are guided on their way. 

It sparkles on the limpid rill. 
Where Sunday schools abound ; 

For there the streams are flowing on. 
To nourish all around. 

It glistens on the flmty rock 

When harden'd sinners feel : 
It sleeps upon the hill, when saints 

Die with their pardon's seal. 

But still it pours, on Calvary's top. 

Its brightest, purest ray ; 
Still points us to the Saviour's cross. 

And says, ^'- This is the way." 
West River. W. R. 



142 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS. 

Amelia. Good afternoon, Susan. This is a 
very happy Christmas. I hope you fmd it so? 

Susan. Yes, Amelia, I do. It is indeed a 
happy day. But what makes this day Christ- 
mas ? Can you tell me 1 

A. O yes ! It is the birthday of our blessed 
Saviour. Don't you remember that our teacher 
told us that he was once a little infant ? and that 
when he was born, the little angels were so 
glad, that they sung. Glory to God in the highest 1 

S. Yes, O yes ! She said that he was born 
in a stable, and had a manger, where the horned 
oxen fed, for his cradle : that wise men came 
a great way to see him ; and they gave him 
presents of gold and other pretty things, because 
they loved him, and he had come to be their 
Saviour. And she told us more. Can't you 
remember ? 

A. I can remember some, Susan. Don't you 
knowthat she said that one night, when the sheep 
and the pretty lambs lay quietly upon the ground, 
and the shepherds that took care of them were 
asleep in their tents, a beautiful angel came down 
from heaven, and a bright glory shone around 
them ? The men were afraid. But the angel said, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 143 

" Fear not ; for I have come to bring you glad 
tidings ; for a Saviour is born, which is Christ 
the Lord !" The shepherds left their flocks to 
go and find the pretty babe* A bright star went 
before them, and never stopped until it came to 
the place Avhere the young child lay, aiid then 
it was lost in the brightness of Bethlehem's 
sun. And she told us that this sweet little 
babe grew to be a child like ourselves. But he 
was a very good child. He never said, thought, 
nor did, anything wrong. 

S. But did he never any wrong in all his 
life? 

A. No, Susan, never ! 

S. Well, is he not the same one that loved 
the little children so, that he took them in his 
arms and blessed them 1 

A. Yes, my dear Susan, he is the very one. 
He did more for us than this. He died upon 
the cross to save us. And after three days, he 
came to life again, that we might live for ever. 

S. Is he alive again ? 

A. Yes, Susan, he is. Though he was dead, 
yet he is alive again, and now he will live for 
evermore. And if we are only good children, 
and serve him, when we die we shall go and 
live with him, and be happy. 

S. To what place ? can you tell me, Amelia ? 



144 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

A. Don't you know, Susan, that he has gone 
to heaven ; the place where saints and angels 
dwell; and where all good little children go 
when they die ? All are happy there. 

S. I wish, Amelia, that you would tell me 
more about that happy place, will you ? 

A. O Susan, it is a blessed place ! The 
streets are paved with pure gold ; and God is 
its sun, and his glory its light. The people 
never get sick there ; nor do they ever die ; but 
sweetly unite in singing the song of Moses and 
the Lamb. And they say that we shall all sing 
there. 

S. Why, Amelia, I should love to go there. 
And I do believe that we could sing that pretty 
song, if we were there. Who knows but it is 
something like the one we sing in infant school? 
Let us sing it now. 

** Hark! the skies with music sound, 
Heavenly glory beams around ; 
Christ is bom ; the angels sing, 
Glory to the new-born King ! 

Mortals, hail the glorious King ! 
Richest incense cheerful bring; 
Praise and love Emanuel's name, 
And his boundless grace proclaim." 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER, 145 



NEW-YEAR'S DAY. 

Thomas. Another year lias pass'd away 
Since last I saw this joyous day; 
Each ti-ee and plant that bloom'd in spring 
Now looks a bare and barren thing ; 
And each fair flower that deck'd the vale 
Has droop'd beneath the wintry gale. 

Jane. When spruig resumes her smiling reign, 
The plants and flowers will bloom again, 
And though like them we too must die, 
And in the silent grave must lie, 
Yet we shall burst that house of clay, 
And soar to realms of endless day. 

T, The snow upon the ground is spread, 
And seems a soft and downy bed; 
I hear the merry sleigh-bells ring, 
And though I love the breath of spring, 
I would not wish stern winter o'er, 
Though fiTiits and flowers are seen no more. 

J. Each different season of the year 
Does its peculiar blessings bear : 
Spring, summer, autumn, winter, all. 
The budding flower, the sere leaf's fall, 
Speak of His goodness who supplies 
The fruitful showers, the cloudless skies. 

T. How soon another year is gone, 
And eighteen forty-six comes on ; 
If time so swifdy flies away, 
How short on eai'th must be our stay ! 
10 



146 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER^ 

A few brief years at most, and we 
Must launch into eternity. 

J. But if we serve our gracious Lord, 

And live according to his word, 

How gladly will we yield our breath, 

And close our eyes in peaceful death ! 

For such delights we then shall know, 

As man cannot conceive below. J. D. M. 



BIBLE^CLASS EXERCISE. 

Question 1 . What are the two grand divisions 
of the Bible ? 

Answer, The Old and the New Testaments. 

Q. 2. What are the most prominent divisions 
of the Old Testament Scriptures ? 

A. The Pentateuch — ^historical — ^poetical — 
and prophetical books. 

Q, 3. Who wrote the Pentateuch, and why 
is it so called 1 

A. Moses wrote the Pentateuch ; and it is so 
called, because it signifies five books. 

Q. 4. What are the names of these five books, 
and the reason of their being so named ? 

A, The first book is called Genesis, because 
it contains an account of the production or ge- 
neration of all things. The second book is 
called Exodus, and signifies going out, and 
contains a particular account of the going out 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 147 

of the children of Israel from Egypt for the land 
of Canaan. The third book is called Leviticus, 
because it treats of the laws, ordinances, and 
offices of the Levitical priesthood. The fourth 
book is called Numbers, because it contains an 
account of the numbering of the people in their 
joumeyings through the wilderness to the land 
of promise. The fifth book is called Deu- 
teronomy, and signifies the second law, or the 
law repeated ; and contains the last discourse 
of Moses to the Israelites. 

Q. 5. What are the names of the historical 
books ? 

A. Joshua — Judges — Ruth — I. and II. of 
Samuel — I. and II. of Kings — I. and II. of 
Chronicles — Ezra — Xeheraiah — and Esther. 

Q. 6. What are the names of the poetical 
books ? 

A. Job — Psalms — Proverbs — Ecclesiastes — 
The Song of Solomon. 

Q. 7. What are the names of the prophetical 
books ? 

A. Isaiah — Jeremiah — Ezekiel — Daniel — 
Hosea — Joel — Amos — ^Obadiah — Jonah — Mi- 
cah — Nahum — Habbakuk — Zephaniah — Hag- 
gai — Zechariah — and Malachi. 

Q. 8. What are the principal divisions of the 
New Testament ? 



148 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

A, The historical books — Epistles — and the 
Apocalypse, or Revelation. 

Q. 9. Give the names of their writers ? 

A. The first four historical books were writ- 
ten by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The 
Acts of the Apostles was written by St. Luke. 
The thirteen^ Epistles by St. Paul; and the 
General Epistles by James, Peter, John, and 
Jude. The Apocalypse, or Revelation, was 
written by the apostle John. 

Q. 10. Prove that God is the author of the 
Old and New Testament Scriptures ? 

A, St. Pa,ul says, (2 Tim. iii, 16,) All Scrip- 
ture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
for instruction in righteousness. St. Peter says, 
(2 Peter i, 21,) that holy men of God spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 

Q. 11. How long a period do the Old and 
New Testaments occupy from their commence- 
ment to their completion ? 

A. About four thousand years. 

Q. 12. How long since the Bible was com- 
pleted ? 

A. About eighteen hundred years. 

Q. 13. What do the Holy Scriptures teuch us 
of God ? 

A. They teach us that there is but one living 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 149 

and true God — everlasting — without body or 
parts : that he is a spirit — yet that there are 
three persons in one God, the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. 

Q. 14. Can we understand how there can be 
three persons, and yet but one God ? 

A, No: we cannot, anymore than we can 
understand how there is a trinity in ^very hu- 
man being, viz., body, soul, and spirit, and yet 
but one man. We can only know of the truth 
of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by revela- 
tion, which says, (1 John v, 7,) For there are 
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, 
the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three 
are one. 

Q. 15. What do the Holy Scriptures proclaim 
God to be ? 

A. In Exodus xxxiv, 6, 7 : The Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, 
and abundant in goodness and truth ; keeping 
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, trans- 
gression, and sin, and that will by no means 
clear the guilty. 

Q. 16. What do the Scriptures teach us of 
the present character of man ? 

A, That he is a sinner — that he is far from 
God by wicked works. In Gen. vi, 5, God says, 
that every imagination of the thoughts of the 



150 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

heart of man was only evil continually ; and in 
Rom. viii, 7, that his carnal mind is enmity 
against God, for it is not subject to his law, 
neither indeed can be. 

Q. 17. Did God make man thus ? 

A. No. In Gen. i, 27, it is said, that God 
created man in his own image — in the image 
of God created he him — male and female cre- 
ated he them. The apostle tells us, that the 
image of God consists of righteousness and 
true holiness. 

Q. 18. How came man to be such a sinner? 

A. He broke God's law. 

Q. 19. What law did man break? 

A. That law recorded Gen. ii, 16, 17: Of 
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat ; 
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

Q. 19. Is the consequence of this transgres- 
sion universal ? 

A. Yes. Rom. v, 12 : As by the offense of 
one man sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for 
that all have sinned. 

Q. 20. What has God done for man, in his 
fallen and depraved state ? 

A. John iii, 16: God so loved the world, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 151 

that he gave his only-begotten Son. And 1 John 
ii, 2 : He was the propitiation for our sins ; and 
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the 
whole world. He hath also (1 Cor. xii, 7) 
given a manifestation of his Spirit to every man 
to profit withal. 

Q. 21. When, and upon what terms, is God 
willing to save sinners ? 

A, He is willing to save now. 2 Cor. vi, 2 : 
Behold, now is the accepted time, behold now 
is the day of salvation. Acts x, 43 : To him 
give all the prophets witness, that through his 
name whosoever believeth in him shall receive 
remission of sins. 

Q. 22. What is the duty of such as are thus 
saved ? 

A, To persevere — grow in grace. And 
(2 Pet. i, 5-7) besides this, giving all diligencCj 
add to your faith virtue, and to virtue know* 
ledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to 
temperance patience, and to patience godliness, 
and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to 
brotherly kindness charity. 

Q. 23. What will be the consequence if we 
do not persevere to the end ? 

A, We shall backslide from God, and lose 
our souls. Ezek. xxiii, 12, 18 : The righteous- 
ness of the righteous shall not deliver him in 



152 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

the day of his transgression; but when the 
righteous turneth from his righteousness, and 
conmiitteth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. 

Q. 24. Where do the righteous and the 
wicked go immediately after death? 

A, The righteous go to heaven. Our Sa- 
viour said to the penitent thief upon the cross, 
(Luke xxiii, 43,) To-day shalt thou be with me 
in paradise. Luke xvi, 22 : And it came to 
pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by 
the angels into Abraham's bosom. The wicked 
go to hell. Luke xvi, 22, 23 : The rich man 
died, and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up 
his eyes, being in torments. 

Q. 25. When shall the righteous and the 
wicked receive their full and final reward ? 

A, Not until after the resurrection and the 
jBinal decisions of the judgment day. Then 
every man will receive according as his work 
shall be. 

Q. 26. Where shall the righteous and the 
wicked then go ? 

A, Matt. XXV, 46: The wicked shall go away 
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous 
into life eternal. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 153 

A DIALOGUE ABOUT JESUS. 

FOR INFANT SCHOLARS. 

The teacher may ask the questions and the children 
answer, or the children may be divided into two sec- 
tions ; those in one class asking the questions^ and those 
in the other repeating the answers. 

Q. Who came from heaven to bleed and die 1 

A. Jesus, the Sou of God Most High. 

Q. But why did Jesus suffer thus ? 

A. He suffer'd, bled, and died for us. 

Q. Were our sins then on Jesus laid ? 

A. They were ; he bore them in our stead. 

Q. Will God forgive what we have done ? 

A. Yes, if we ask through Chiist his Son. 

Q. But will he hear what children say ? 

A. He will, if wdth our hearts we pray. 

Q. Will Jesus help us if we try ? 

A. He'll send the Spiiit from on high. 

Q. What will the Holy Spiiit do ? 

A. Teach us to pray — our hearts renew. 

Q. Is Jesus still the children's fi'iend ? 

A. His love to children knows no end. 

Q. Does Jesus still the children bless ? 

A. He does, with truest happiness. 

Q. And may we all to Jesus come ? 

A. Yes, m his heart there yet is room. 

Q. O should we not this Saviour love ? 

A. All other friends far, far above. 

Q. And surely we should praise him too ? 

A. Yes, and we'U gladly joui with you. 



154 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 



ALL SINGING. 



Jesus, the Lord, let us adore. 
And love and praise him evermore. 
Glory to Jesus Christ be given. 
By all on earth, by all in heaven. 



VISITING ON THE SABBATH. 

Jane. Good evening, Sarah. I am happy to 
see you : I hope to enjoy an interesting and 
edifying interview with you this evening. 

Sarah. Certainly. I have come on purpose 
to spend an hour in conversation with you on 
some subject which I trust will be useful to both 
of us. 

/. I am glad you have come to converse on 
some particular subject; for I will assure you 
that real good seldom attends loose conversa- 
tion, so common among young people at their 
visits. 

^. As you are the oldest, I wish you would 
introduce any subject you think best. 

/. Since you prefer my choice, I think we 
cannot spend our time this evening more profit- 
ably than to consider the nature, practice, and 
results of sabbath visitings. 

S. Sabbath visitings ! Pray, Jane, what do 
you mean ? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 155 

J. I mean the receiving or giving calls among 
friends on the sabbath, by which at least a part 
of that holy day is spent in an unlawful manner. 

S. Well, truly, that seems a subject worthy 
our serious consideration ; but I really never 
thought there was any harm in showing our 
friendship by visiting on the sabbath. 

/. The sin would not be so great if it were 
not for the manner of spending our time and the 
attending consequences. 

S. Well, I have often visited my friends, and 
received visits on the sabbath, without feeling 
guilty for it. 

/. There may be various causes for your 
peace of conscience in this matter. Your pro- 
tracted habit of it may be one cause. Your 
early education may be another cause. But the 
most probable cause is the example of certain 
professed Christians, for whom you have had 
high regard. You have no doubt regulated your 
conscience by their loud professions, outward 
deportment, or their kindness toward you, in- 
stead of weighing the whole matter in the scales 
of truth. 

S, 1 confess your remarks bear strongly on 
my case ; but I do not know that any attending 
evil has befallen me by my course of conduct 
in sabbath visitings. 



156 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

/. You must be aware that it is possible for 
us to be suffering under injury received, without 
being fully conscious of it : and it may be you 
are now laboring under some degree of spiritual 
declension, or want of religious knowledge, as 
the result of neglect of duties through sabbath 
visitings. 

S, I do not know that I have neglected to 
discharge any plain obligation, in order to enjoy 
visits on the sabbath. 

/. I suppose the difficulty in your case lies 
more in want of apprehension of evil, than in a 
disposition to follow a known sin. But be not 
offended if I take the liberty to ask you, whe- 
ther or not your sabbath visitors are of a serious 
character ? and are they willing to converse on 
religious subjects ? and do they seem pleased 
with such conversation ? and are they friendly 
to sabbath schools ? 

S. Well, {blushing,) as to these matters I am 
not able to say positively. 

/. What ! {« look of surprise) have you, a 
follower of Christ, spent so much of God's holy 
time in visiting your friends, and have never yet 
introduced to them the things of Christ's king- 
dom? 

S, You know, Jane, that I am constitution- 
ally diffident, and I have often thought that our 



SUNDAY SCHOOL ifECITER. 157 

Saviour had reference to just such persons as I 
am, when he excused his disciples, saying, 
" The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 

/. But did you at the same time think of the 
circumstances of those disciples when Christ 
addressed them ? Their case was altogether 
different from yours. They were weary and 
sleepy, and it was night, when man requires 
rest. And in the sentiment, " Sleep on ; for the 
spirit is willing," &c., our Lord merely allows 
his disciples the claims of nature, taking the 
willingness of the spirit for the act of duty. 

S. Well, perhaps I have not employed my 
time as profitably in entertaining my company 
with religious conversation as I might have 
done. But at the same time I have carefully 
avoided that senseless talk termed chit-chat. 

/. True, you may not have employed your 
time in mere loose conversation ; but still if you 
did not introduce the subject of religion to your 
thoughtless associates on the Lord's day, you 
must have sacrificed that holy time to discours- 
ing on worldly affairs, which, in fact, is as im- 
proper and as foreign to the devout Christian on 
the sabbath as chit-chat. 

S, Well, as I before remarked, I do not think 
that I have been any less attentive to my duties, 
for associating with sabbath visitors, though they 



158 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITIIR. 

are not all Christians. I have prayed night and 
morning, and read the Bible ; attended church 
regularly, with few exceptions ; and I have been 
as consistent in my conduct as most others of 
my age and experience. 

/. Since you speak again of attention to du- 
ties, allow me to ask you if your young associ- 
ates have not caused you to neglect your obli- 
gations at the sabbath school 1 Have they not 
caused you to be absent from your class, against 
your conscience, by either calling on you when 
you were preparing to come to sabbath school, 
or by prejudicing your mind against that enter- 
prise ? 

S. I believe there have been times wher I 
was kept away from the sabbath school, by my 
young companions calling on me to make visits 
with them just as I was getting ready for school ; 
but I could not so violate their kind feelings, and 
the rules of politeness, as to refuse them my 
company. 

J. Would it not have been better for you and 
them, if, instead of encouraging them to break 
the sabbath, you had invited them, and prevailed 
upon them, to accompany you to the sabbath 
school either as visitors or as scholars ? 

S, I suppose so : but then I did not want 
them to think I was so strict and zealous. In- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITEH. 159 

deed, I have seen so many young professors fall 
into reproach, who, for awhile, were distinguish- 
ed for their zeal in religious matters, that I am 
inclined to walk cautiously. 

/. You don't mean to say there is danger in 
doing the works of God, by saving ourselves and 
others with our might, do you ? 

S. No ; but I have very much altered my 
views respecting sabbath schools. 

/. Altered your mind respecting sabbath 
schools ! which way, for or against them ? 

S. Why {somewhat surly) I think I have 
been at sabbath school long enough as a scho- 
lar; and I think, too, that I have as much re- 
ligion and knowledge of Scripture as my 
teacher. 

/. I am really sorry, Sarah, to hear this from 
you. I have always supposed you were satis- 
fied with your sabbath-school arrangements, and 
especially so with your teacher. 

S. I have nothing in particular against sab- 
bath schools, or my teacher, but I do object to 
remaining an equal with little children. 

/. I am afraid your sabbath visitings have 
produced this vain feeling in your mind ; and it 
may be your young sabbath companions have 
been your bad advisers. Be honest now before 
God, and tell me. Did they not first prejudice 



160 SUNDAY SCHOOL HECITER. 

you SO as to lead you to entertain such exalted 
views of yourself ? 

S. Why, they did once tell me they thought I 
was too old and too far advanced in knowledge and 
piety to continue as a scholar in a sabbath school. 

/. Well, besides this, did they advise you to 
withdraw from the school, unless you could act 
there as a teacher or officer 1 

S. To be honest, with due deference to their 
feelings and characters, I must answer in the 
affirmative. 

/. You see, then, that they have not only 
caused you to absent yourself frequently from 
the sabbath school, which has been the Lord's 
nursery to your soul, but they have also im- 
pressed your mind unfavorably of such means 
of Christian knowledge and holiness, and led 
you to disregard the divine command respecting 
the sabbath, which was given in the midst of 
awful thunderings and lightnings. 

S, You speak the truth, and I cannot but love 
you for it. ( Weeping.) You bring to my re- 
membrance past days of religious prosperity, 
when I was the willing, humble, and joyful 
scholar — ^when it was a cross for me to be ab- 
sent from my class — when I loved every class- 
mate, and when I thought no one was so lovely 
as my dear teacher. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 161 

/. I am truly happy, Sarah, to see you mani- 
fest such tokens of penitence ; and I hope you 
will maintain them until death, forsaking sabbath 
visitings and visitors, and serve God with full 
purpose of heart in the humblest sphere in which 
divine Providence may place you. 

S. (With glad heart and streaming eyes.) 
Yes, I will. O pray for me, that I may be kept 
by the power of God through faith unto eternal 
salvation. J. B. 



TEACHERS' HYMN. 

Behold, we come before thee, Lord, 

Obedient to thy sacred word, — 

With humble love, with fervent prayer, 

O let us for our task prepare ! 
With gratefal hearts, with willing hands, 
Fit us to take these infant bands. 

To lead them home. 

O may they in this meeting see 
Some glimpse of what that home will be. 
When, free from guilt, and pain, and care, 
They spend eternal sabbaths there ! 
O lift their hearts, O lift their hands, 
To join the blood- wash'd infant bands. 
Now safe at home. 

As now from different schools they meet, 
O may it be an emblem sweet 
11 



162 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITERo 

Of that great festal day, when all 
Around the great white throne shall fall ! 
When savage climes, when distant lands 
Shall bring their joyful infant bands 

To heaven, their home. 

W. R. 



SPEECH 

Of a small boy at the close of a sabbath-school anniver- 
sary, just before soliciting subscriptions in behalf of 
the school. 

Once on a sunny summer's day, 
While I was in the grove at play. 
Two little birds lit on a tree. 
And went to chatting merrily. 
I crept so softly on the ground. 
They could not hear the slightest sound ; 
And, coming near, I dropp'd my head, 
And heard the most of what they said. 

First, little yellow-breast begun — 
His feathers glittering in the sun — 
Open'd his little shining beak. 
And to his mate commenced to speak : 
The whole I could not quite make out. 
As while he spoke he hopp'd about ; 
But every time he came in view, 
He sung, ^' I love you, yes, I do." 

Then little red-breast caught my eye, 
Swinging upon a branch near by, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 163 

Responding to the yellow-bird, 
With sweetest notes I ever heard, 
'' Yellow-breast, how shall I know it, 
If you love me, show it ! show itV^ 

And now I will the moral tell, 

Its application suits so well : 

We've often heard our parents say — 

And friends, on celebration day — 

*' A better school, the country round, 

Go where you will, cannot be found ; 

And that most highly they esteem 

This heaven-bless 'd and important scheme." 

Now, dear parents, let us know it, 

If you love us, show it ! show it ! 

Just hand a little money out, 

And it will settle every doubt. 

S. S. M. 



VOYAGE OF LIFE. 

Upon the swiftly-roUing tide 

Of time, we flow along, 
And o'er its heaving bosom glide, 

In one promiscuous throng. 
How often has life's slender bark 

Been toss'd on mountain wave, 
And then descend to caverns dark 

Where howling winds did rave ! 

But when the storm with fury raged, 
The Saviour's voice was heard. 

And when he spoke, the storm assuaged 
At his omnific word. 



164 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

And now within this holy place, 

Thus guided by his hand, 
We all appear with cheerful face, 

A happy youthful band. 

The incense of the heart in praise 

To heaven shall now ascend, 
And may we all our future days 

In prayer and praises spend. 
Then when life's stormy voyage is o'er. 

And time shall flee away. 
We'll meet on Canaan's blissful shore, 

In everlasting day. D. D. 



'' BRIGHT LITTLE STAR." 

Bright little star, on evening's breast 
How beams thy golden light ! 

But fast thou'rt suiking in the west. 
Sweet little star, good night. 

And I, when I have bent my knee. 
And said my evening prayer 

To Him who made both me and thee. 
Shall to my rest repair ; 

And thinking on that brighter star 
That once o'er Bethlehem rose. 

And eastern sages led afar, 
I'll sink to sweet repose. 

But O, when I at last shall lie 
In death's cold slumber down. 

May then my spirit shine on high, 
A star in Jesus' crown I 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 165 



ROBERT RAIKES. 

A Tribute of Respect to the Founder of Sabbath 
Schools. 

Ye honor the hero, who, dangers defying, 

Has bled, my loved country, for freedom and thee, 

His actions so brave, every breeze may be sighing ; 
Ye quaff to his mem'ry the wine cup with glee. 

Ye hallow the land where your forefathers, dying, 
Bequeath'd you a treasure that honor 'd must be, 

*' The star-spangled banner triumphantly flying 

O'er the home of the brave, and the land of the free." 

Ambition may rear its proud columns to heaven. 
The marble may blazon the deeds of the past ; 

Be the honor that's due to their memories given, 
And the fame they have eam'd for evermore last. 

I*d pluck not a leaf from the laurels you're weaving, 
I'd cast not a blot on your records of fame ; 

But I would that your hearts one impress receiving 
Respond would to me as I breathe out a name. 

No hero of battles is he I am chanting, 

No warrior chief to whom anthems may rise. 

But he who had form'd, while the good seed was plant- 
ings 
A gem for his Master ! — a pearl for the skies ! 

The Sabbath-School Founder! O none can outvie thee! 

Thy name, Robert Raikes, ever honor'd shall be; 
Thy laurels on earth we can never deny thee, 

And bright be the '' crown of rejoicing" for thee ! 



106 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 



A HYMN. 

Smiling strangers, will ye list 

To our simple story ? 
Will ye hear from childhood's lips 

Of the Lord of glory ? 
Him whom God the Father gave, 
Him who rescued from the grave, 
Him who still has power to save, 

Glory — glory — glory ! 

Blessed Saviour ! while on earth 

Many came to hear him, 
And 'mid thronging crowds were seen 

Little children near him. 

Him whom God, &c. 

They had linger'd at his feet — 
Wherefore should they shun him ? 

Stem disciples bade them go — 
Press ye not upon him — 

Him whom God, &c. 

llark ! The dear Redeemer speaks, 
Eyes with love are beaming. 

From his lips sweet accents break, 
Words of gentle meaning. 

Him whom God, &c. 

Come to me, forbid it not — 

This sinless child is given, 
To show how pure the heart must be 

To win its way to heaven. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 167 

Him whom God the Father gave, 
To conquer e'en the yawning grave, 

He has still the power to save, 
Glory — glory — glory ! 



PARTING HYMN. 

The moment of parting arrives — we are sad, 

Whose bosoms so lately were joyous and glad ; 

For "when shall we meet again?" comes with a 

sigh, 
That stirs the deep feelings while saying good-by — 
Saying good-by, &c. 

On eai'th none can tell what the future will bring. 
Nor what from this meeting will probably spring ; 
The past is a dream, in the grave it must lie. 
And we to tliis moment must murmur good-by — 
Murmur good-by, &xj. 

We tremble to think how frail is man's breath. 
We sigh as we dream of the coming of death — 
Even now may the angel be lingering nigh ; 
Be ready, be ready to utter good-by — 

Utter good-by, &c. 

The bud and the blossom of spiing pass away, 
The flowers of summer bloom, fade, and decay ; 
E'en autumn fruits pensh, and winter must die ; 
So we vdth all nature must echo good-by — 
Echo good-by, &c. 



168 SUNDAY SCHOOL RECITER. 

O, may we depart, when the hour draws near 
As softly as nature's sweet charms disappear, 
And may kindest angels be ready to fly 
Home, home with each spirit that whispers good-by- 
Whispers good-by, &c. 

Then, then in a region of glory we'll stray. 
Unmoved by a sorrow, untouch' d by decay, 
And never more listen, or trembling, reply 
To language so sad as this fervent good-by — 
Fervent good-by, &c. 



THE END. 



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